Maria &
Band
On stage.
Meu Interior.
A taste of the catalog before the new album lands. The full Bandcamp page has the discography and pay-what-you-want options that support the band directly.
Open Bandcamp →9 Rosas.
9 Rosas is a forthcoming album by Maria & Band, recorded across two continents with musicians from Canada and Brazil.
The record expands the band's cross-cultural approach to forró pé de serra, rooted in Northeastern Brazilian tradition and shaped by years of playing in Toronto.
- 01Malandro de Forró
- 02Água de Cocho
- 03Boi Mangangá
- 04Chorinho Avergonhado
- 05Juanita
- 06Que Nem Pato n'Água
- 079 Rosas
- 08Saudade Morta
- 09Se Eu Fosse Tu
Live show.
Live gallery.
Band.
Maria & Band is a Brazilian forró ensemble based in Toronto, led by singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Jerusa Leão.
Developed since 2011, the project has grown through collaborations with musicians from Brazil, Canada, Latin America, and immigrant communities. Across each formation, the work returns to the same root: forró as a living culture of movement, memory, celebration, and survival.
The band celebrates Northeastern Brazilian culture and the many crossings carried inside forró: Moorish, Balkan, Portuguese, Indigenous, African, rural, immigrant, and diasporic traces. It is music shaped by the road, by migration, by the countryside, by love, by longing, by dance, and by the need to gather people in one room.
Maria & Band performs original compositions and beloved forró songs from Brazil, with voice, rabeca, zabumba, accordion, triangle, guitar, pandeiro, and a chorus of vocals. The sound is rooted in forró pé de serra, expanded through Toronto's cross-cultural music scene and the lived experience of artists moving between places, languages, and traditions.
Booking and press.
Performance formats
- Live concert
- Live concert with dance intervention
- Before the show dance activation
- Festival and outdoor stage format
- Cultural and community event format
The show can expand into a dance-led experience, with dancers activating the space before the first song and returning during selected moments of the live performance.
Send a booking inquiry
For booking, please include the event date, city, venue or festival name, expected audience size, and preferred format.
If the form does not work, email maria@miyl.me directly.