Ovelha

The Brazilian singer known as Ovelha was born Ademir Rodrigues de Araújo in Olinda, Pernambuco in 1955. He began his singing career in the 1970s after being mentored by Luiz Gonzanga, the famous baiao artist who, after seeing de Araújo perform, hired the young singer for his band.

Within a few years de Araujo had become an accomplished performer and after winning a talent contest his career began to take off. It was the contest's presenter Chacrinha who nicknamed the singer Ovelha, the Brazilian word for sheep which is reference to de Araújo's distinctive blonde fleece-like hair.

He began his recording career in the 1980s and after a slow start had his first major hit with a Portugese version of the Bobby Vee song 'More Than I Can Say'. The song remained in the charts for more than four years and helped make Ovelha a household name in Brazil. He went on to record 18 albums, the most recent of which is 'Ovelha Na Mira Do Rock' which came out in 2010, and he has sold more than five million records with a number of his records achieving gold and platinum accreditation.