Extremely successful artist of the energetic style axé music, Daniela Mercury has consolidated her career both nationally and abroad. At eight, she started to take ballet classes. At 13, she decided to be a singer, influenced by Elis Regina. At 15, she began to perform in small bars in her home town. Next came the trial of the trio elétrico (powerful sound trucks over which is mounted a stage, from where the vocalist fuels hours of frenetic Carnival animation). She followed the dance course of the Universidade Federal da Bahia, while she was a member of dance groups, performing in upstate Bahia and in other states. [br][br]Before her professionalization as singer, she earned her living as dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. She participated in the dance group Salto and taught at the dance school of the state's Fundação Cultural. At 23, she became a backing vocalist in Gilberto Gil's band for a short while. After another stint with the Companhia Clic, with which she recorded two albums in 1989 and 1990, she departed for her solo career in 1991, the year in which she recorded her first album, Daniela Mercury. In all of her albums her compositions are present. The album was exhaustively promoted in more than a hundred shows throughout Brazil and she was awarded with the Prêmio Sharp as feminine revelation in the regional category. In the next year, she performed for 20,000 people at the MASP (São Paulo). In the same year, Canto da Cidade had an enormous hit with "Swing Da Cor" (Luciano Gomes), which granted her the first place amongst the axé music singers. In 1993, she sang for over 100,000 people at the Vale do Anhangabaú and performed in New York, being praised by the New York Times. In the six albums she recorded between 1991 and 2000, she had her biggest hits with "O Canto da Cidade" (with Tote Gira), "À Primeira Vista" (Chico César, included in the TV Globo soap opera O Rei Do Gado), "Nobre Vagabundo" (Márcio Melo), "Todo Canto Alegre," and "Rapunzel" (both by Carlinhos Brown). In 1997, she debuted in Paris, soon after her complimented performance at the Lincoln Center (New York, U.S.) and received a gold record in Portugal. She has been touring through Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Striving for control over her work, she is the owner of her own producing company, O Canto da Cidade, and publishing house, Páginas do Mar. In 2001, she participated in the Rock in Rio III festival.