SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilian newcomer Maria Rita, one of Wednesday's leading Latin Grammy nominees, treats her family's rich musical legacy as a personal gold watch — a treasure to be guarded but not used as an up-to-date timepiece.
"There's a certain hysteria surrounding the fact that I'm the daughter of Elis Regina," says Rita. "But it stopped being a burden for me when I realized it's a projection of other people's desires."
Regina was a Brazilian pop music superstar often compared to Judy Garland or Edith Piaf. When Regina died at 36 in 1982, Rita was barely 4 (her father is Brazilian pianist/arranger Cesar Camargo Mariano).
Many fans hear Regina in Rita's self-titled debut, which has earned her four Latin Grammy nominations for record of the year ("A Festa"), album of the year, best new artist and best popular Brazilian album.
Slight, self-confident and steely, Rita began performing only two years ago.
"I tried other things first, including the production side of the music business," she says, sipping wine at a cantina in her native city of Sao Paulo. "I wanted to make sure my motives were right."
She says of her decision to become a singer: "The first time I got up on stage to perform, I knew I was home."
"Maria Rita," backed by substantial publicity, sold 100,000 copies the first week of its release.
What fans heard, aside from a remote tingle of her mother's stylized delivery, was a mellow, jazzy sound that's a natural combination for the hushed shadows-and-light cadences of the Portuguese language.
To American ears, the sound is known as Brazilian jazz and features the classic accompaniment of piano, acoustic bass and drums.
"Some critics have drawn a comparison with Norah Jones," says Rita of the unlikely pop-jazz superstar. "But it's just a coincidence. I was not influenced by her."
Rita spent eight critical years growing up in the United States, first as a high school student in Chatham, N.J., then as an undergraduate at New York University, where she earned degrees in communications and Latin American studies.
"My father went to the United States to expand his musical horizons," says Rita, who was also, subconsciously, was expanding her own.