Cuca Roseta

Maria Isabel Rebelo Couto da Cruz Roseta (born 2 December 1981), known professionally as Cuca Roseta, is a Portuguese fado singer, composer, and model.

Roseta is considered one of the most important fado representatives of her generation, appearing early in her career in the movie Fados by Spanish director Carlos Saura.

In 2006, Roseta competed in RTP's Festival da Canção with the song "As Minhas Guitarras", and in 2007 she appeared in the Goya Award-winning film Fados by the Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura.

In 2009, Roseta recorded the advertisement Pingo Doce e venha cá for the Portuguese supermarket chain Pingo Doce.

Cuca Roseta's first album was released in 2011 and was produced by Gustavo Santaolalla, who saw her perform at the Clube de Fado.

After this initial encounter, in which Roseta was not aware of the Argentine producer's identity, she had to wait four years to record the album due to Santaolalla's busy schedule.

Cuca Roseta has toured extensively, performing in more than 30 countries, giving individual concerts and participating in music festivals such as MEO Sudoeste in 2011.

In 2013, Roseta recorded the album Raíz (in English: Root), which was produced by Mário Barreiros.

Roseta wrote most of the album's songs.

Roseta invited the Brazilian producer Nelson Motta to collaborate on her third album; Motta agreed to produce the album although he had not recorded an album for more than ten years.

In 2014 Bryan Adams photographed five Portuguese female singers, including Cuca Roseta, which appeared in covers for Vogue Portugal, and were presented in the "Exposed" exhibition at the Cascais cultural center.

Roseta has done several commercials throughout her career, and served as brand ambassador for diverse companies and products such as Mitsubichi Motors, the Guess clothing brand, eyewear, jewelry, and nutritional supplements.

The 2015 album called Riû brought together several genres and many significant figures of world music such as Bryan Adams, Djavan, Ivan Lins, Zeca Afonso, Dorival Caymmi, Júlio Resende, Sara Tavares and Jorge Drexler.

With Motta's knowledge of world music the record reinvented songs with different origins in a "world fado" style, departing from the traditional sadness of fado with cheerful rhythms and positive lyrics.

In 2015, Roseta performed more than 120 concerts, both in Portugal and abroad.

That year, she participated in Badasom, a flamenco and fado festival in Badajoz, Spain, where she sang a duet with Niña Pastori.

In 2017, Roseta's fourth studio album Luz, which was produced by Diogo Clemente, was released.

The album contains several original songs by Roseta and compositions by artists Pedro da Silva Martins, Jorge Fernando, Carolina Deslandes, Hélder Moutinho and Mario Pacheco.

The album's release was preceded in mid-October by the release of the single "Balelas".

In July 2018, the track "Don't Be Late" was released as a second single.

Roseta released her fifth album Luz de Natal—a Christmas album with Portuguese versions of songs such as "Jingle Bell Rock" and "White Christmas"—in 2018.

Fado, a musical genre that originated in Lisbon in the early 19th century, is traditionally characterized by feelings of resignation and melancholia, but Roseta's style also incorporates more upbeat influences from world music.

She has released seven studio albums with producers including Gustavo Santaolalla and Nelson Motta, has toured extensively, and collaborated with different artists including David Bisbal, Karl Jenkins, and Stewart Sukuma.

Roseta has appeared in the Portuguese versions of the television shows Got Talent and Rising Star as a judge, and as a competitor in Dancing with the Stars.

She has worked toward causes such as road safety and environmental sustainability, and in 2021 gave a series of hospital concerts to the health professionals fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cuca Roseta began her musical career by singing in her church choir; she then became a rock singer after being recruited by her friend Tiago Bettencourt to the group Toranja during her teenage years.

Roseta entered the fado scene at the age of 19, singing in Lisbon fado clubs in the Alfama district.

She was encouraged to pursue a career in fado by the owner of Clube de Fado, guitarist Mário Pacheco, as well as by singers Carlos Zel, and Ana Moura.

She published a book of poetry in 2019 called "One hundred poems by Cuca Roseta".

In 2019, she sang in Havana during the celebration of the centenary of diplomatic relations between Cuba and Portugal.

Her 2020 album Amália Por Cuca Roseta is a tribute album of songs from the repertoire of Amália Rodrigues.

In December 2020 Cuca Roseta released the album Meu (in English: Mine), with all the themes written and composed by her, which is unprecedented in the fado genre.

The album was presented in an online live concert on December 2, the day of her birthday.

In 2023 she released the album Rayana in collaboration with Spanish guitarist Daniel Casares.

In 2020 she performed at the Teatro Real during the Madrid fado festival, participated in an event in Buenos Aires celebrating the 100th birthday of Amália Rodrigues, and sang the Portuguese national anthem at the opening of the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix.

In April 2021 she sang Lisboa inspira, the official anthem for Lisbon European Sports Capital 2021, composed by herself, at a ceremony attended by the Minister of Education of Portugal Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, and the coach of the Portuguese national soccer team Fernando Santos.

At the end of the same month she was invited by the Spanish flamenco musicians Daniel Casares, guitar, and Jorge Pardo, flute and saxophone, to present their project called Supertrío in a performance at the Teatro del Soho in Málaga.

Cuca Roseta has had many television appearances, mainly in Portugal.

She was part of the experts' panel in Rising Star: A próxima estrela and a judge in the third and fourth seasons of Got Talent Portugal.

She competed in Dança com as Estrelas ("Dancing with the Stars Portugal"), and gave a clue in an episode of The Amazing Race 23 and again in The Amazing Race Australia 3 as the judge.