Carmélia Alves (14 February 1923 – 3 November 2012), a Brazilian singer known as the "Queen of Baião", was one of the country's best-known performers of baião, a folk rhythm popular in Northeast Brazil. Alves began her career at the Hotel Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro, where she performed covers of hits by Carmen Miranda. Her friend, baião and accordionist Luiz Gonzaga, exposed her to the music of Northeast Brazil and inspired her to devote the rest of her career to baião. Alves was married for 50 years to singer Jimmy Lester, who died in 1998. They had no children. They performed together throughout the world, including Argentina, Germany and Mexico. Their success in Argentina prompted Alves to open a branch of her recording company in Buenos Aires. In 2000, she formed a group of professional singers from the 1950s.
