Brazilian music has a strong tradition of producing excellent women singers. The best of all time was undoubtedly the great Elis Regina , from Rio Grande do Sul, whose magnificent voice was tragically stilled in 1984, when she was at the peak of her career, by a drugs overdose. She interpreted everything, and whatever Brazilian genre she touched she invariably cut the definitive version. Two of her songs in particular became classics, Aguas de Março and Carinhoso, the latter being arguably the most beautiful Brazilian song of all. Again, the A Arte de Elis Regina double album is the best bet, although there is also a superb record of Elis with Tom Jobim, called Elis e Tom. After her death the mantle fell on Gal Costa , a very fine singer although without the extraordinary depth of emotion Elis could project, whose version of Aquarela do Brasil inspired Terry Gilliam to the idea for the film "Brazil", and whose LP, named after the song, is highly recommended, along with the A Arte de Gal Costa compilation. More recently, a new generation of women singers has carried the tradition forward. The most prominent amongst those who have come into their own in the 1990s has been Marisa Monte ; the classic Cor de Rosa e Carvão is the best introduction to her enormous talent. Other up-and-coming women singers include Silvia Torres , Belô Veloso (a niece of Caetano), and the latest sensation, Virginia Rodrigues ; it took a couple of albums for her remarkable voice to find the right producer, but her most recent album, Nós, suggests that Marisa Monte may have to look to her laurels in the years to come.