IZA

Isabela Cristina Correia de Lima Lima, known by her stage name IZA, is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, presenter and businesswoman. Born and raised in the neighborhood of Olaria in Rio de Janeiro, she is the daughter of music and arts teacher Isabel Cristina Lima and naval soldier Djama Leite Lima. Her parents are second cousins, which is why the singer was given the surname Lima twice. At age 6 she moved to Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, when her father was transferred to serve at the Natal Naval Base. During her childhood in the capital of Potiguar, she suffered racism for being one of the only black children in a private and traditional school in the city of Natal. IZA started singing in church at age 14 and began performing at parishes and other events when she returned to Rio de Janeiro at age 19. In 2009, at the age of eighteen, she joined the Publicity and Propaganda course at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), with a scholarship from Enem, graduating in 2013 and starting to work as a video editor. In 2015, at the same time, she created a YouTube channel and started to publish videos singing songs by other artists. In 2016, she was discovered by Warner Music through her YouTube channel and signed to the label. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.