{ "slug": "samba", "name": "Samba", "aliases": [ "samba carioca", "samba de roda", "pagode", "samba-canção" ], "description": "Rio de Janeiro's national music, out of the Bahian communities of the Praça Onze district and onto record in 1917. Built from interlocking percussion and a syncopation that lands everywhere except where a European ear expects it.", "origin": { "place": "Rio de Janeiro, Brazil", "year": 1917 }, "lineage": [], "bpm": { "min": 90, "max": 140 }, "updated": "2026-08-30", "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/samba/", "trackCount": 8, "curatedBy": [], "playlists": {}, "tracks": [ { "rank": 1, "trackKey": "ary-barroso--aquarela-do-brasil", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/ary-barroso--aquarela-do-brasil/", "title": "Aquarela do Brasil", "artist": "Ary Barroso", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/ary-barroso/", "year": 1939, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The samba-exaltação, written in one night during a rainstorm, and the tune the rest of the world means when it says Brazil. Grandiose, and it earns it.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Ary%20Barroso%20Aquarela%20do%20Brasil", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OJfOG6pbnvI", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 2, "trackKey": "donga--pelo-telefone", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/donga--pelo-telefone/", "title": "Pelo Telefone", "artist": "Donga", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/donga/", "year": 1917, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "The first record registered as a samba, and its authorship was disputed immediately by everyone who had been in the room. A fair beginning for a collective music.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Donga%20Pelo%20Telefone", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=m0LyMqdicj8", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 3, "trackKey": "pixinguinha--carinhoso", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/pixinguinha--carinhoso/", "title": "Carinhoso", "artist": "Pixinguinha", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/pixinguinha/", "year": 1937, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Choro rather than strict samba, by the greatest Brazilian musician of the century, and the most loved melody in the country. Booed as too American when it appeared.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Pixinguinha%20Carinhoso", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=7217Xga4zOw", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 4, "trackKey": "ze-keti--a-voz-do-morro", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/ze-keti--a-voz-do-morro/", "title": "A Voz do Morro", "artist": "Zé Kéti", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/ze-keti/", "year": 1955, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "\"I am samba\" — a song that argues the music belongs to the hillside favelas rather than to the studios below. It won the argument.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Z%C3%A9%20K%C3%A9ti%20A%20Voz%20do%20Morro", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pebcDCvtJKE", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 5, "trackKey": "elizeth-cardoso--coisa-mais-linda", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/elizeth-cardoso--coisa-mais-linda/", "title": "Coisa Mais Linda", "artist": "Elizeth Cardoso", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/elizeth-cardoso/", "year": 1959, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Cardoso is the bridge from samba-canção to what came next; her 1958 sessions with João Gilberto are usually called the first bossa nova record. This is the older art at its most refined.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Elizeth%20Cardoso%20Coisa%20Mais%20Linda", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=hSX1kB-t_OQ", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 6, "trackKey": "zeca-pagodinho--deixa-a-vida-me-levar", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/zeca-pagodinho--deixa-a-vida-me-levar/", "title": "Deixa a Vida Me Levar", "artist": "Zeca Pagodinho", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/zeca-pagodinho/", "year": 2002, "label": "Universal", "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Pagode, the backyard variety, sung by a man with no interest in appearing to try. Proof the tradition kept producing standards long after the tourists moved on.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Zeca%20Pagodinho%20Deixa%20a%20Vida%20Me%20Levar", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=oTREAvZbmME", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 7, "trackKey": "baden-powell--canto-de-ossanha", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/baden-powell--canto-de-ossanha/", "title": "Canto de Ossanha", "artist": "Baden Powell", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/baden-powell/", "year": 1966, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "Afro-sambas — Powell and Vinicius de Moraes going to the candomblé terreiros for melodies and coming back with something darker than bossa allowed.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Baden%20Powell%20Canto%20de%20Ossanha", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=NQKIVYlBKdc", "exact": true } } }, { "rank": 8, "trackKey": "adoniran-barbosa--trem-das-onze", "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/adoniran-barbosa--trem-das-onze/", "title": "Trem das Onze", "artist": "Adoniran Barbosa", "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/adoniran-barbosa/", "year": 1964, "label": null, "isrc": null, "whyItMatters": "São Paulo, not Rio, and a man explaining he cannot stay because his mother will worry and he must catch the eleven o'clock train. Comic, sad and perfectly built.", "alsoOn": [], "links": { "spotify": { "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Adoniran%20Barbosa%20Trem%20das%20Onze", "exact": false }, "youtubeMusic": { "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=RkkGVgOqPuM", "exact": true } } } ] }