Olga Souza

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Olga Souza on the cover of Corona's album "Walking On Music" 1998

Olga Souza was born on 16 July 1968 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Afro-Brazilian parents. Her father is a musician and her mother a chef. She has two brothers: Roberto who is also a musician in Italy, and Ademar who is a dancer (or a singer) based in Spain. She took lessons in a samba school. But Souza's first job was not artistic, as she worked for a bank in Rio, the Caixa Economica Federal. By chance, she met the football star Pelé, who advised her to chose to work on both careers. During the day, Souza worked in the bank, whilst she danced in the evening.

Some magazines attribute her a career purely as a dancer in the U.S.. However, a record producer proposed she record a Spanish language version of the Lambada. Afterwards, she lived for a while in Madrid, where she presented a television show.

In the early 1990s, she came to Italy where her brother offered her a place to stay. She met producer Francesco Bontempi who first signed her as a chorist. Shortly after their first meeting, Souza and Bontempi started a new project called Corona. The first single, "The Rhythm of the Night", was actually sung by the Italian Singer Jenny B.. Then she went back to Rio for a while, but three months later her producer called her on the phone to exclaim "The Rhythm of the Night" is number one in Italy".

Souza now lives in Rome, but she comes back to Brazil once a year.

Souza is 1.78 metres tall, and finds it hard to find a man tall enough for her. She is married to Mario Luis, a Brazilian dancer, with whom she performed for a show in France. She is a fan of Prince, Stevie Wonder, Coolio, Whitney Houston, George Michael and Barbra Streisand.