Daughter of the singer, composer and ventriloquist
Batista Júnior and sister of
Linda Batista, Dircinha Batista was a very successful Brazilian singer. In a career of more than forty years she recorded over three hundred 78 rpm discs with many big hits, especially Carnaval songs. She worked in sixteen Brazilian movies and was a child prodigy. Dircinha began performing at festivals at age six. She began to participate in her father's shows in
Rio de Janeiro and
São Paulo beginning in 1928. Dircinha and her sister
Linda Batista became famous while still young and soon won the admiration of the then-president
Getúlio Vargas, who considered the Batista sisters a "national heritage". She became
RCA Victor's leading seller over the 1940s and 1950s. In the '60s at the height of her career, Dircinha was already struggling with depression and was hospitalized in clinics and sanatoriums. At age 13, Dircinha made the film
Hello, Hello Brazil! directed by
Wallace Downey and the following year in
Hello, Hello, Carnival! produced by
Adhemar Gonzaga, another great success at the time of
chanchadas. Her singing career took off after
Francisco Alves presented her on his program on Radio Cajuti as "the girl with the throat of a bird". She was named "Queen of Radio" in 1948. she recorded her first record for
Columbia featuring two
Batista Júnior compositions, "Borboleta Azul" and "Dircinha". In 1931, she joined Francisco Alves' program on Rádio Cajuti, where she worked until she was ten, then moving to Rádio Clube do Brasil. In 1933 she recorded "A Órfã" and "Anjo Enfermo" by
Cândido das Neves accompanied by the composer on guitar, together with
Tute. In 1937,
Benedito Lacerda invited her to record his samba "Não Chora" with him as a soloist (with Darci de Oliveira). After the recording, not knowing what to use on the other side of the record, he asked
Nássara (who was in the studio) for one of his songs. Nássara had an unfinished march, then finished it and Dircinha recorded his first big hit, "Periquitinho Verde", which exploded at Carnaval the following year. == Filmography ==