Cátia Mazari Oliveira, professionally known as A Garota Não, was born on October 29, 1983, in Setúbal, and recently turned 43 years old. Her artistic journey weaves together personal memories, human connections, and social activism through songs that observe everyday life and social inequalities with irony and a critical eye.
She grew up in the 2 de Abril neighborhood in Setúbal, an environment where music echoed through building walls and whose everyday experiences nourished her writing. Financial hardship, cultural diversity, and community relationships were essential parts of this formative journey. In an interview with Observador, she recalled that even as a child she was already inventing lyrics, including adapting the song “Esta Vida de Marinheiro” by Sitiados with references to what she watched on the television news.
Before releasing her own compositions, she explored genres such as jazz, bossa nova, and Brazilian popular music, performing in small venues, bars, and wine cellars. Her stage name emerged as a reaction to repeated audience requests to sing “Garota de Ipanema”: feeling she had nothing new to add to the classic track, she would reply “a garota não” (“not the girl”). That recurrent refusal ultimately became the title of her project.
Her musical career developed alongside other academic and professional endeavors. Holding a degree in Communication and Culture, she worked in journalism, teaching, and supporting youth and people with disabilities. In 2015, she began collaborating with producer Sérgio Miendes after sharing some of her songs with him, initiating a partnership that led to her debut album.
Released in 2019, the album Rua das Marimbas was produced by Miendes and featured key tracks such as “No Dia do Teu Casamento” and “Adamastor.” This first record already demonstrated her signature blend of sensitivity toward human relationships, everyday events, and sharp social commentary.
In 2022, she released 2 de Abril, an album widely acclaimed by music critics and featured among the best Portuguese releases of that year. The title honors both her childhood neighborhood and the date of the adoption of the 1976 Portuguese Constitution, connecting her personal history to the collective memory of democracy. Across twenty tracks, the record touches on social inequalities, human affection, job insecurity, and housing issues, showing that social commentary can be expressed through close attention to ordinary lives.
This critical acclaim led to her winning the Authors Award for Best Popular Music Work and the Golden Globe for Best Musical Performer in 2023. The following year, in 2024, she received the José da Ponte Award and was honored with the José Afonso Award for the 2023 edition, both recognizing 2 de Abril.
In her 2025 release, Ferry Gold, the artist revisited her childhood memories on the beaches of Tróia, contrasting that early sense of freedom with the changes brought by luxury tourism and spatial inequality. The title refers to the Sado river ferry crossing and the rising cost of public transit, which she criticized as a barrier preventing local residents from accessing those beaches. The album incorporated literary and musical influences from authors such as Florbela Espanca, José Saramago, Allen Halloween, and Sam The Kid, combining text snippets, poetry, news items, and speeches into its tracks. In 2026, she brought her repertoire to prominent festivals like FMM Sines, Vodafone Paredes de Coura, and Festival Iminente.
Beyond her solo discography, she has written, composed, and featured in works by artists such as Sara Correia, Ana Bacalhau, Ricardo Ribeiro, and Luca Argel. Outside the recording studio, she created music for theater and film, including Victor Hugo Pontes’s production Falsas Histórias Verdadeiras: uma Pinacolagem and Raquel Freire’s documentary Mulheres de Abril.
On stage, she has established a close partnership with the Coro das Mulheres da Fábrica, a community-based intergenerational choir founded in Coimbra in 2022 by Vânia Couto to preserve traditional female polyphonic singing. Performing alongside the choir, she took part in the 2025 Festa do Avante! and performed at several concerts celebrating the 50th-plus anniversary of the 25th of April in 2026, bringing her songwriting closer to collective singing and oral tradition.
In March 2026, she debuted her stage show A Vulgar Mulher Extraordinária at the Belém Cultural Center (CCB) in Lisbon. Drawing inspiration from her mother’s memory, the show constructs a collective biography of women while highlighting caregiving, domestic labor, and social inequality.
In August of that same year, she released the EP O Testamento do Tigre, inspired by the writer Fiama Hasse Pais Brandão, featuring the original title song along with three reconfigurations led by Sérgio Miendes, Diogo Arranja, and João Mota.
On October 1, she presented an adapted version of A Vulgar Mulher Extraordinária at the Coliseu Micaelense in Ponta Delgada, featuring the newly formed Coro das Mulheres da Ilha, a local ensemble modeled after the Coimbra choir. Developed during an artistic residency led by Vânia Couto, the concert combined her own songs with traditional Portuguese and Azorean folk compositions, marking the new choir’s public debut.
Having celebrated her 43rd birthday, A Garota Não stands out as a distinct voice in contemporary Portuguese music, bringing personal and collective narratives to stage and studio while giving visibility to lives and issues that often remain overlooked.
