To connect with your audience while your eyes are closed – not every singer can do that as remarkably as Juliana da Silva can. It’s a matter of presence, the Brazilian singer is convinced. And it is not only her own opinion: the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung sees her appearances as “musical full body sensuality”. Da Silva has a stage presence that loses nothing of its captivating power even next to her idol Bart van Lier. When the Dutch star trombonist ignites a brilliant jam of fireworks between jazz and bossa nova with the da Silva’s band, there’s no doubt: This woman even sets the tone when she is silent and swaying to the beat, lost in the music. Da Silva, has been singing since she was just learning to speak. For that reason, there was one rule which was not to be broken in the da Silva home: no singing during meals. But that didn’t deter Juliana: she sings in the church choir, stands on the stage for the first time with her band at the age of 12 and in her early twenties leaves São Paulo for Germany. There follow further band projects, collaboration with various artists and innumerable gigs. Her new CD “Vai Samba Meu” shows more than just the singer’s fascinating power of expression: there’s no song that doesn’t put the solos of the instrumental trio in the foreground. Here and there, lonely and sporadically clanging drums, undulant basses and virtuoso piano playing, then again as a team lively seesawing and gently ebbing away – in the end, the communal feeling wins.