Leila Pinheiro and Joyce are better musicians; Gal Costa is better looking; and Luciana Souza has a more distinctive style—but in last half century of Brazilian popular music, there has been no singer who could compare with the ineffable qualities that made Elis Regina a legend in her own time.

Sheer musical magic is apparent in Regina’s collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal.

Elis Regina would only live three years after this performance, ultimately dying of drug addiction. The cracks in the vocal apparatus are already apparent: a weakness in the upper tessitura and a raspiness to the voice that was exacerbated by cocaine and heroin.