Iracema de Sousa Ferreira (March 20, 1922 – October 28, 2003), better known by her stage name Nora Ney, was a Brazilian singer, songwriter and instrumentalist and an avowed supporter of Olaria Atlético Clube.
Fascinated with the world of music, Iracema assiduously attended radio and auditorium programs during her youth. Unlike the other several radio singers, she had her career encouraged by her father, who presented her with a guitar, which she self taught to play. While living in Urca, she met Dick Farney and Cibele, where she began to perform at small events. The friendship with this couple led Iracema to meet Lúcio Alves, who participated in meetings of the Sinatra-Farney fan club, at this couple's home. All these contacts made her meet the director of Rádio Tupi, who hired her to sing on the night program "Fantasias Musicais" presented by José Mauro.
With her fame growing more and more, she changed her stage name to Nora Ney after a fan mistakenly wrote a letter to her. Soon after, she was invited by Almirante to work on the "Viva o Samba" segment on the "G-3" program, as a substitute for Aracy de Almeida during her vacations. Thus, requests began to arise for Nora to add Brazilian songs to her repertoire, further increasing her success. Her talent gave her a resounding success with the local public and she got a contract at Rádio Nacional, where she set audience peaks on the program Quando Canta o Brasil at 9 pm. Later, due to great demand, Ney also began to appear on other radio programs, such as "Trio do Osso" by Mayrink Veiga and Cruzeiro do Sul. With all these achievements in her career, she achieved financial independence. Increasingly popular, her voice quickly caught the attention of music producers.
In 1952, through the Continental label, she recorded four sides including “Menino Grande", “Quanto Tempo Faz". "Amor, Meu Grande Amor", and lastly "Ninguém me Ama"which became very popular and gained the first ever Brazilaian record to receive a Gold Disc. This smash hit "Nobody Loves Me" was later covered by American singer Nat King Cole when he was on tour in Brazil and fell in love with the song.
Despite being a notable samba-canção interpreter, Nora Ney became one of the pioneers of the Brazilian rock by recording the first rock LP in the country: the Brazilian version of "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets (soundtrack of Sementes da Violência movie) in October 1955. After only one week, the song became a hit, and began a trend for Brazilian singers making covers of rock songs.. This made her the first singer to record the rock musical style in the national territory. However, despite the great success, Nora did not continue with the Rock & Roll style.
By 1963 Nora had earned the honorary nickname "Queen of Radio" and alongside Jorge Goulart, her husband, she went on an international tour of countries in North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, also becoming one of the first Brazilian singers to perform in the "countries of the Iron Curtain" in Eastern Europe. On April 1, 1964, Ney was performing at the theater of the National Union of Students, when the coup d'état of 64 took place. With that, Ney, along with her husband, moved to Russia, due to the persecution that was beginning against the communists in Brazil.
In Russia, Ney was already known and loved due to a presentation made in 1959. Only in 1968 did she return to the national territory, where she continued her successful career by adapting to the musical style of the moment; granting her the nickname "Goddess". Upon returning to Brazil, she released "Mudar de Conversa", her first album in eight years. In the early 70s, she did a residency alongside Goulart at the nightclub "Feitiço da Vila", in Belo Horizonte.
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In 2000, she was honored by Elymar Santos in one of his concerts at Canecão, where in a wheelchair, she sang "Ninguém Me Ama",On July 6, 2001, due to respiratory failure, from which she had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for years, Ney was admitted to the intensive care unit of Hospital Samaritano, in Rio de Janeiro.
The singer died at the age of 81, on October 28, 2003, due to multiple organ failure, at Hospital Samaritano, where she had been hospitalized for three months.
(Edited and translated from Brazilian Wikipedia)