Maria Rita began singing professionally at the age of 24, although she had wanted to sing since she was 14. Her first CD, Maria Rita, launched her career symbolically, with the first cut on her first album, A Festa (The Party), being written by Milton Nascimento, the legendary Brazilian singer-songwriter whose career was launched by Maria Rita's mother, Elis Regina, when she began to sing his songs to the national Brazilian audience. The CD went platinum and was a hit worldwide, making her an international star. She developed her own jazzy vocal style, with singers like Ella Fitzgerald as her model. For her 2013 album Redescobrir she was finally persuaded to perform and record songs her mother had sung.
She won the 2004 Latin Grammy Awards for Best New Artist in the General Field, Best Song in Portuguese ("A festa") and her debut album Maria Rita won the Best MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) Album award for that year. The world hit that "Segundo" turned out to be, granted her in 2006, two additional Grammys Latinos – Best MPB Album and Best Brazilian Song with "Caminho das Águas" authored by Rodrigo Maranhão – and over 50 shows abroad, with full public and reviews acceptance in the Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Irving Plaza (NY), San Francisco Jazz Festival, among others.[citation needed]
Maria Rita was nominated for the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in 2008. On 28 June 2008, she performed in London for the first time, with a production by Tuba Productions and JungleDrums Magazine.
