Maria Bethania - 25 anos (1990)

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of her music career, Bethânia gave us this valuable gift. In my opinion, this is her best studio album from the mid 80s on. It is very well conceived and it is packed with magnificent songs and with great vocal collaborations by Joao Gilberto, Nina Simone, Gal Costa and Alcione. The first half is rather quiet and soothing, with ballads and torch songs, as "O canto do pajé", which is one of Bethânia's gems, "Maria/Linda flor", a whispered acoustic ballad in duet with Gilberto, "Logrador", a heartfelt blues, and "Pronta pra cantar", a memorable duet with Nina, who is as outstanding as Bethânia. Then in track 7 Bethânia gets much more temperamental and shows us how powerful her singing can be with "Tomara", the first uptempo song. The album finishes with two raucous candomblé-inspired songs accompanied by a batucada (percussion band), "Awô" and "Inhansã", and a nice samba, "Palavra".