Noel de Medeiros Rosa (December 11, 1910 - May 4, 1937) was a Brazilian songwriter, singer, and guitar/banjo player. One of the greatest names in Brazilian popular music, Noel gave a new twist to samba, combining its Afro-Brazilian roots with a more urban, witty language and making it a vehicle for ironic social commentary.

Noel Rosa was born in Rio de Janeiro into a middle-class family of the Vila Isabel neighbourhood. An accident with a forceps at his birth caused the disfigured chin that would haunt him all his short life. He learned to play the bandolim while still a teenager, and soon moved on to the guitar. Although Noel started medicine studies, he gave most of his attention to music and would spend whole nights in bars drinking and playing with other samba musicians. Together with Braguinha and Almirante he formed the musical group "Bando de Tangarás". Soon he started composing sambas, and had his breakthrough with "Com que roupa?", one of the biggest hits of 1931 and the first in a string of memorable compositions. Noel was a good friend of Cartola, who have received and trated him after some drinking nights several times in his house on the Mangueira's slum.

The name Rosa, Latin and botanic name of the flowering shrub Rose, could refer to:

Paulinho da Viola (born Paulo César Batista de Faria on November 12, 1942) (Portuguese pronunciation: [pawˈlĩɲʊ daviˈɔlɐ]) is a Brazilian sambista, singer/songwriter, guitar, cavaquinho and mandolin player, known for his sophisticated harmonies and soft, gentle singing voice.

Born in Rio de Janeiro to a family deeply rooted in the samba tradition, Paulinho met and befriended much of Rio's samba elite as a child. His father was a guitar player and musicians like Pixinguinha and Jacob do Bandolim would often come to his house for rehearsals, which Paulinho watched for hours on end. After the rehearsals, Paulinho would pick up his father's guitar and strum the few chords he knew. Later, as a teenager, he was frequently seen at jams at mandolin master Jacob do Bandolim's house, quietly and attentively observing the older, more experienced musicians. He began writing his own songs as a teenager, but never considered a career as a professional musician until he met poet Hermínio Bello de Carvalho in 1964. By then, Paulinho was working as a teller at a bank in Rio de Janeiro, and recognized Hermínio from the jam sessions at Jacob do Bandolim's house. The two became close friends and soon began writing music together. The first song they wrote together was Duvide-o-dó, recorded by singer Isaurinha Garcia. He then began performing his own songs at a restaurant in Rio, owned by samba legend Cartola and his wife.

Zeca Pagodinho (b. February 4, 1959, birth name Jessé Gomes da Silva Filho) is a Brazilian singer/songwriter working in the genres of samba and pagode.

Born in the neighborhood of Irajá, Rio de Janeiro, Zeca Pagodinho grew up around the most traditional manifestations of samba and started making his own verses while still a kid. In the '70s, Zeca started frequenting the Carnival Block of Cacique de Ramos, which took place in Rio de Janeiro every Wednesday and became a true pagode's crib (pagode is a type of samba). At one of these jams, samba singer Beth Carvalho was impressed with Zeca's skills and invited him to record the song "Camarão Que Dorme a Onda Leva". From that point on, Zeca began to record his own albums. There are now 15 of them, and three DVDs. His creative, joyful, malicious songs translate the day-by-day of the typical easy going carioca and are a big success in Brazil. He's one of the biggest-sellers in the country.

One of Zeca's first hits is from his first album. It's called SPC; the SPC, in Brazil, is a blacklist of bad debtors from which it is hard to get one's name removed (it stands for Credit Protection Service). The song, a partnership between Arlindo Cruz and Zeca, tells the story of someone who asks a friend (or partner) to use their credit card on his behalf; afterwards, the relationship breaks up. Both persons are implied to have low incomes.

Aracy de Almeida (Portuguese pronunciation: [araˈsi dʒi awˈmeidɐ], b. August 19, 1914 - d. June 20, 1988) was a Brazilian singer, a famous artist of the Golden Age of Brazilian radio.

Her 1950 album Noel Rosa was voted by Rolling Stone Magazine one of the greatest Brazilian albums of all time.