Leci Brand\u00e3o turns 80 and celebrates 50 years of her career as if she were stepping into her own samba circle: with confidence, joy, and a lot of celebration. The artist crosses generations, celebrates lives, and denounces injustices.<\/p>\n
A woman born in Madureira and raised in Vila Isabel, she became the first woman to compose for Mangueira\u2019s composers’ wing, a school where she is now an icon. With lyrics about love, Blackness, oppression, and orix\u00e1s, her work has always carried social critique in its essence.<\/p>\n
Seeing her turn 80, celebrated with a documentary about her life (\u201cLeci,\u201d directed by Anderson Lima), countless tributes, and the people\u2019s love, is moving for all of us Black women.<\/p>\n
As Cida Bento wrote in this same Folha<\/em>, when the deputy received the Legislative Merit Medal from the state of S\u00e3o Paulo, \u201cLeci Brand\u00e3o remains an inspiring presence for all of us, Brazilian women and men \u2014 especially Black women \u2014 whether in art, culture, or politics in S\u00e3o Paulo and Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n There is another side of Leci Brand\u00e3o that uplifts us: her public love for her mother, Dona Lecy de Assump\u00e7\u00e3o Brand\u00e3o. As the deputy, sambista, and composer said in an interview: \u201cDona Lecy was the person who most inspired me in this life. I have two sambas, \u2018The Things My Mom Taught Me\u2019 and \u2018The Daughter of Dona Lecy,\u2019 that portray what she means to me. She passed away in 2019, but I still miss her deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother\u2019s job was to sweep classrooms. She swept, and I, her only daughter, helped her. We swept in the morning, afternoon, and evening for the adult education classes. When it comes to sweeping classrooms, modesty aside, I know it well,\u201d she continued in the interview.<\/p>\n Her love for her father, Ant\u00f4nio Francisco da Silva, I learned about from Fernanda Kalianny Martins de Souza\u2019s master\u2019s thesis on Leci\u2019s life, later adapted into the book Filha de Dona Lecy<\/em>, published by Gota.<\/p>\n A civil servant at Souza Aguiar Hospital, Ant\u00f4nio was a big musical influence. A fan of Jamel\u00e3o, Jacob do Bandolim, and opera, he brought abundance home, where Dona Lecy prepared delights like fried cod with onion, bell pepper, and tomato sauce.<\/p>\n At school, Leci was a brilliant student and a regular newspaper reader, a habit she kept over the years. In fact, she reads this Folha<\/em>. When she likes one of my columns, she writes to congratulate me.<\/p>\n I imagine she does the same with other Black columnists because it is in her nature to support and uplift those around her. Leci did not have children, but she is a godmother to many.<\/p>\n I grew up listening to her sambas, which cheered up the backyard parties at my parents\u2019 house. They collected her vinyl records and knew all the lyrics by heart. Even today, when I hear some of her songs, they come mixed with barbecue smoke and the joy of happy days among working people; they turned the sweat of long days into smiling afternoons with grilled sardines.<\/p>\n With 50 years in her career, she has recorded dozens of albums, won the Brazilian Music Award several times, and led parade broadcasts, leaving her mark both singing and commenting on Carnival.<\/p>\n I think that after announcing so many times that a new leader, Z\u00e9 do Caro\u00e7o, was being born, Leci might not have realized that she herself became a leader in constant rise, eventually representing the people of S\u00e3o Paulo as a state deputy for almost two decades.<\/p>\n