Right from the very first notes of My Brazilian Heart the listener gets bewitched by the gentle elegance and extreme finesse of the actress Clara Bella, discovered by Rohmer and made into a robot by Spielberg in Artificial Intelligence.

This album is the first of a trilogy which includes “My French Heart” and “My American Heart”. Clara Bellar has expertly chosen a magical repertoire: “Canto das três raças”, immortalized by Clara Nunes; “Joana Francesa”, “Samba e amor” by Chico Buarque; “Sampa” by Caetano Veloso and classic numbers by Gilberto Gil or Noel Rosa. Clara invited the illustrious Dori Caymmi to take part in the production and musical direction. Milton Nascimento and João Bosco also joined the team to perfect the novel orchestrations. For this is what the album consists of: the meticulous, neat, sensitive work of a very special and charming interpreter, who seems enraptured by the voices of Brazil. Gifted with a velvet voice which would make many blush with envy, she offers, on the one hand, her enlightened vision of João-Gilberto-style Bossa Nova and, on the other hand, the percussion rhythms of the Mangueira parades.

Clara Bellar knows how warmly and sensuously to communicate her feelings of wonder and sensitive love for Brazil with all its African traditions and mythology. This is a disk from the heart, in the shape of a declaration of love to Brazil with a “French feminine touch”, which knows how subtly to mingle and embrace love and glamour, music and poetry. It’s pure lace.