Simone de Oliveira

Simone de Oliveira GCIH • GMC
Simone de Oliveira at Festival da Canção 2015
Background information
Birth name	Simone de Macedo e Oliveira
Born	(1938-02-11) 11 February 1938 Lisbon, Portugal
Occupation(s)	Singer, actress
Years active	1958–2022

Simone de Macedo e Oliveira, GCIH • GMC (born 11 February 1938) better known as Simone de Oliveira is a Portuguese singer and actress. She performed the Portuguese entries at the 1965 and 1969 editions of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Early life and career

Simone de Oliveira was born and raised in Lisbon. Her Portuguese mother had black African roots in São Tomé and Príncipe (then a Portuguese territory), and her father was Belgian. She started singing in high school.

Music career

She started her career at the end of the 1950s.

With "Sol de inverno" she represented Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965.

Simone de Oliveira at Eurovision 1965

In 1968, the released the Quando Me Enamoro EP on Decca PEP 1250. It contained the songs, "Viva O Amor" ("Ein Hoch Der Liebe") by Carl J. Schäuble and Horst Jankowsky, "Nos Meus Braços Outra Vez" ("Come Into My Arms Again") by Barbara Ruskin, "Quando Me Enamoro" ("Quando M'Innammoro") by – Pace, Panzeri and Livraghi, and "Para Cada Um Sua Canção" ("A Chacun Sa Chanson") by J. C. Oliver and R. Valade.

She became fairly famous in 1969 with the song "Desfolhada portuguesa", with lyrics by José Carlos Ary dos Santos and music by Nuno Nazareth Fernandes. This song was a great success in Portugal, having innovative lyrics during the time of the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar. It represented Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 in Madrid. Despite her popularity at home, it was not successful at the Eurovision, getting only 4 votes.

Eleven years later she was again selected by RTP to represent her country in the ninth edition of the OTI Festival (The Latin American counterpart of the Eurovision Song Contest). She performed the song "A tua espera" which got the 14th place with 9 points.

Other successful songs:

• "Maria solidão"
• "Deixa lá"
• "À tua espera"

In 2022, she was announced to be a coach on the generations version of The Voice Portugal alongside Mickael Carreira, Anselmo Ralph, and Bárbara Bandeira. At 84, she became the oldest The Voice coach globally. She returned for her second season as a coach in 2023, with Carreira, Ralph, and Sara Correia.

Selected filmography

Theater

• A tragédia da Rua das Flores
• Passa por mim no Rossio (a great success in Portugal)
• Maldita cocaína.
• A homage to the singer Madalena Iglésias in the musical play What happened to Madalena Iglésias (another success)
• Alma Mahler-Werfel in Joshua Sobols play Alma (2003, directed by Paulus Manker) in Convento dos Inglesinhos in Lisbon.

Acting career

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1964	A Canção da Saudade	Herself
1967	Operação diamante
1976	Cântico final
1982	A estrangeira	Clara

Television

She has participated in several Portuguese telenovelas:

Date	Title	Role	Network	Notes
1996	Roseira Brava	Amélia Falcão	RTP
1996/1997	Vidas de Sal	Madalena Fragoso	RTP
2001/2002	A Senhora das Águas	Maria dos Prazeres	RTP
2005/2006	Morangos com Açúcar	Maria Antónia Mergulhão	TVI
2006/2007	Tu e Eu	Raquel Lemos Silva Reis	TVI
2008	Vila Faia: 25 anos depois	D. Efigénia Marques Vila	RTP
2022–2023	The Voice Generations	Coach	RTP

In 1993, Simone was also a jury member in the first season of SIC contest Chuva de Estrelas (the Portuguese version of Stars in Their Eyes), which has uncovered new talents in Portuguese music.

Personal life

Simone is a breast cancer survivor and had the sickness twice.

External links

• Lyric of entry Sol de inverno, (1965)
• Lyrics of entry Desfolhada portuguesa, (1969)
• Blog with informations and photos of Simone Oliveira