Nobody loves me, a song by Fernando Lobo and Antônio Maria, released by Nora Ney, in 1952.
Before being elected "Queen of Radio," Iracema de Souza Ferreira performed as Nora May. An unsuspecting fan mixed up May with Ney, and she ended up adopting the new name.
Born in Olaria in 1922, she was a regular at audience-participation radio shows and never missed the chance to take the stage to sing a foreign hit song. She would only sing in English or French, until the producer Haroldo Barbosa convinced her to join MPB, in which she achieved enormous success. She shone on Rádio Cruzeiro do Sul and Rádio Mayrink Veiga, and by the early 1950s she was already a singer sought after by songwriters.
Nora Ney. Source: Jornal GGN
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a woman. She is seated with her arms crossed over her chest, wearing a fur coat. Her pose is elegant and confident. The woman has short, wavy hair, combed back. She holds two cigarettes between her fingers, one in each hand. Her facial expression is serious, looking directly at the camera.In 1952, she released two records: the first featuring the composition Menino grande, by her friend Antônio Maria, which came to become Getúlio Vargas's favorite song; the second, with Ninguém me ama, the paradigm of 'samba-de-fossa', which earned the singer the 1st Gold Record in Brazilian phonographic history.
Her first marriage was quite turbulent. She was constantly abused by her husband and was even hospitalized due to an overdose of barbiturates. From the unhappy union, two children were born, Hélio and Vera Lúcia, who would be elected Miss Brasil.
Shortly after the contentious separation, she found her great partner in the powerful voice of tenor Jorge Goulart. They formed one of the most interesting couples on the Brazilian artistic scene. They had immense charisma: in China, in a stadium with 45,000 people, Goulart got everyone to sing the chorus of Aurora, and Nora Ney had to give an encore of Ninguém me Ama.
Jorge Goulart and Nora Ney. Source: Jornal Estado de Minas
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of two people in a musical moment. The person on the left is playing a classical guitar, wearing an open jacket. The person on the right is singing, using a headset microphone. She is wearing a floral-print blouse. Both are in a simple setting, possibly a stage or a recording studio.They were united not only by music, but also by their political ideology. They were the first Brazilian singers to tour the former Iron Curtain. Accused of being communists in 1964, they were stripped of their positions at Rádio Nacional and had to go into exile in Europe.
Nora also went down in history as the pioneer of rock in Brazil. She was the first singer to record the hit Rock Around the Clock, by Bill Haley.
Article in Revista do Rádio. Ed. 323 - 1955. National Library Digital Newspaper Archive
Image description: The image is a black-and-white informational poster. At the top, there is a black asterisk inside a white square. Below it, "NORA EM INGLÊS" is written in black capital letters. The main text is left-aligned and describes a surprise that occurred during a César de Alencar program, where Nora Ney sang a melody in English that was being released in the film "Sementes da Violência." The mention "Rock around the clock" is highlighted in green. The text mentions that Nora Ney recorded another song in English called "Robin's Nest."Nora Ney passed away in 2003, but she had already been away from the stage for more than 10 years due to a stroke in 1992.
