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Perla (4)

Perla (born Ermelinda Pedroso Rodriguez D'Almeida in Caacupé on March 17, 1952) is a Paraguayan-Brazilian singer. Born and raised in Paraguay, she moved to Brazil at an early age in search of challenges and opportunities. She raised to prominence in the 1970s with her hit Fernando, a Portuguese-language version of ABBA's song, from the same decade. During her career, she has sold more than 10 million records and won 10 Gold Records, 2 Platinum and a Double Platinum, among other awards. Having been born into a musical Paraguayan family, she was still in her early youth when she gained first experience in performing music on stage as a member of the group "Las Maravillas del Paraguay" with her father and siblings. However, because of a discovery of an affair she was involved in, Perla left the group in the early 1970s and emigrated to Brazil, where she first settled down in the city of Santos. Quite some time later, she changed her location to the country's biggest city, Rio de Janeiro, where she started performing in nightclubs as "O Bigode do Meu Tio" (The Mustache Of My Uncle) in Vila Isabel. Eventually, in the mid-1970s, she managed to gain some major acceptance among bigger audiences. Her musical repertoire spanned a couple different genres, which ranged from guarânias, boleros and her own interpretations of pop hits. Perla soon gained some notability as a singer of romantic songs. She recorded Brazilian Portuguese cover versions of a couple hits originally performed by Swedish group ABBA, the greatest success of which was her localized "Fernando" cover taken from her 1976 LP "Palavras de Amor". In 1979, she released the album "Pequenina", attempting to reflect the new upcoming disco trends. Beside that, Perla also recorded songs in a number of other languages like Spanish, Italian and English. Even during the following two decades, she remained an active artist by keeping on performing her songs on stage in concerts. The artist even went on recording a small number of "exclusive" albums (since they were not, as usual, financed by a record company but independently by her fan club). In 1999, she released her CD "Especialmente Para Você" (Especially For You); three years later, in May 2002, followed the compilation called "Perla Canta ABBA e Outros Hits" (Perla sings ABBA - and other hits).