If you are London-based and passionate about Brazilian music, or if you are “just” a music lover at large, there’s an event happening this weekend that you simply cannot miss. On Saturday, Lia de Itamaracá will pay a rare, rare visit to the UK to play her very first gig at the Jazz Cafe in Camden.

Singer, songwriter, dancer and a good and proper institution of Brazilian culture, Lia is one of the most important artists coming from Pernambuco and the North Eastern Brazil region. In her life, she has hardly left her island (Itamaracá), but her name, music and dedication to the Afro-Brazilian tradition have travelled far beyond the border of her state, nation and continent.

She’s arguably the most recognised interpreter of ciranda, a popular music and dance style born from fishermen’s wives in the North Atlantic region of Brazil, who sang and danced while they were waiting for their husbands to return from the ocean.

Today, Lia de Itamaracá has not just become a torchbearer of the style, but she has influenced at least two generations of Brazilian musicians, from Chico Science and Nação Zumbi to Lenine, DJ Dolores and many more… Who look at her as an inspiration and (as her State named her in 2005) “Patrimônio Vivo de Pernambuco” (Living Cultural Heritage of Pernambuco).

- You can buy your ticket for Saturday's gig HERE - 

Photo ©: Ytallo Barreto