Jorge Ben

b. 22 March 1939, Rio de Janeiro — Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Born Jorge Duílio Lima Menezes in Rio de Janeiro, he arrived at the start of the 1960s with a guitar style that fitted neither traditional samba nor the cool geometry of bossa nova, and Billboard would later call him “the father of samba rock.” “Mas, que Nada!” was the song that launched him: his own recording opened Samba Esquema Novo, his 1963 Philips debut. He went on through Jovem Guarda and Tropicália, adopted the name Jorge Ben Jor in 1989, and received the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Because he both wrote and first sang the song, there is no third party to credit here.

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