Here are the most beautiful black Brazilian women models that I know of who are famous enough to be in the Portuguese Wikipedia. Some no longer model, but all have modelled at some point. I count as black anyone who is Afro-Brazilian, which is close to the English meaning of the word.
1. Taís Araújo (1978- ), from Rio, became the first black actress to appear as a main character in a telenovela on Brazilian television. She is a presenter on the television show “Superbonita”, about how to be beautiful! More.
2. Adriana Bombom (1974- ) is a Carnival queen from Rio. She she was once one of Xuxa’s helpers. What a body! More.
3. Ildi Silva (1982- ) is a television actress from Bahia. She was discovered on the streets of Salvador and became a model. She says that in Brazil she is seen as neither black nor white. According to the BBC she is one-fifth African by blood and one-tenth native Indian. Her green eyes are Dutch. More.
4. Rojane Fradique (1986- ) is a fashion model from Bahia in the north where most people are black. She is tall (1.82 metres), extremely thin but looks like a work of art. In 2003 she placed second in Brazil in the Elite Model Look contest and 15th worldwide. More.
5. Camila Pitanga (1977- ) is a Brazilian model and television actress from Rio. Best known in Brazil as Bebel on the telenovela “Paraíso Tropical”. Ildi Silva, listed above, plays a secretary on the same show. Her father is black, her mother is white.
6. Adriana Lima (1981- ) is a model from Salvador in Bahia, where she grew up without a father. She is the highest paid Brazilian model after Gisele Bundchen. She has modelled for Victoria’s Secret and Maybelline. She is friends with Raica Oliveira. More.
7. Lucy Ramos (1982- ) is a model and television actress. She is best known for her role in the show “Sinhá Moça”. She was born in Recife in Pernambuco. More.
8. Marina Montini (1948-2006) was a beauty from Rio in the 1960s and 1970s. She was so beautiful that men painted pictures of her, especially Di Cavalcanti. Her heavy drinking brought her to an early end at age 58.
9. Suyane Moreira (1982- ), from the state of Ceara in the north, is part black, part native Indian. She has been in Vogue magazine in Italy, Germany and France and on the runways in London and New York. She says that people hold her colour and her looks against her more often in Brazil than elsewhere.
10. Deise Nunes (1968- ) was Miss Brazil in 1986, the first black woman to win the title and, more than 20 years later, still the only one. She came in sixth place in Miss Universe.
Black models in Brazil have broken into advertising since the 1990s, but the fashion industry is still very white.
See also:
- Brazilian models
- The most beautiful black Brazilian women
- The most beautiful black women models
- black fashion models
- Brazil
- Race in Brazil
- One Drop Rule – or what counts as black in North America
- models:
Mon 29 Oct 2007 at 07:32:42
those models look mixed, they are not 100% black. In latin america, blacks are usually mixed with indigeneous or white people. I’m from southamerica so I’m very familiar with this. In the US, most black women are very unatractive as compared to Brazil or Colombia. Ohh and in Brazil there are more white people than black people by far, indigeneous people is another minority, and mestizos are the other ethnic group that is big in Brazil
Mon 29 Oct 2007 at 08:53:49
Most are mixed, some are nearly white. Ildi Silva, for example, is 71% white by blood. My rule is to count any one black, in the English sense of the word, who is considered to be Afro-Brazilian in Brazil. I use the English sense because I am writing in English.
I know race in Brazil is different than in the States. I have a posting on that too:
http://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/race-in-brazil/
Sun 4 Nov 2007 at 02:00:55
im a from texas and my mom is Brazilian(80% white/20%black)
i was somewhat disappointed with this list. i mean, in America, BLACK means they are pure African or at least 70% African. in the US, 90% of Black Americans are 30% European and 70% African. most of the women on here would be classify as black because of their skin but, there facial features would stick them out. currently, the trend in America, most successful black women are light skinned or are mixed(Beyonce, Rhianna, Alicia Keys, etc) As for black men, most of them are dark skinned because most women like them dark.
whites are the majority and since blacks dominate entertainment here, they want blacks that they can identify with. so those models would be very successful here in America, but they would most likely be accepted in the white community then the black because of their facial features.
in response to Liza, they’re are many attractive black women in America. they probably just don’t show them in Brasil. i’ve been to Brasil and black Americans are preceived very negatively there. many ppl don’t even know they’re blacks in Brasil because all they show us here in America about Brazilians is that all the women have natural tans and big butts(which many ppl envy)
Sun 4 Nov 2007 at 23:13:07
Blacks and whites mixed way more in Brazil than in America, so many people have light brown skin and features that are nearly white. That is why the women on this list seem so washed out to Americans. Many of them are regarded as neither black nor white in Brazil but mixed.
Keep in mind that from a West Indian point of view many of the black women in America seem pretty washed out too: their eyes are rounder and their cheekbones lower. Because so many of them are part white, like you said.
Mon 19 Nov 2007 at 21:12:48
TO LIZA. Who are you to judge whether or not black american women are beautiful in comparison to Colombia and Brazil. All those women are is a buch of white women w/ tans. They don’t identify w/ African heritage at all, nor do they want to be considered that…
Why are we less attractive? because our hair isn’t flowing like a white person’s? Because our noses are wide like the people of our dominant culture? Because we LOOK LIKE AFRICAN rather than white women?
Who died and made you the authority of black american beauty?
Wed 21 Nov 2007 at 00:49:23
The States have plenty of beautiful black women. I know: I live there. And not all of them are light-skinned or near-white.
Wed 21 Nov 2007 at 13:38:41
Thank you Abagond. That is why my comment isn’t directed at you. I’m sick of these international/foreign women feeling they are superior in beauty and marketability because they look like white women w/features of ethnic women. Just because black women, widely, don’t fall into the standard of beauty doesn’t mean we’re not beautiful in our own right…
I’m a fair complected black american woman. I STILL despise the concept that “Lighter and whiter is better!”. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Just because White society has set the standard of beauty as white and “white-looking” doesn’t make it an absolute and everything else outside of that context ugly.
When someone deems themselves more beautiful because they have closer to white features, American people or otherwise, that says something about your level of self-esteem, your shallowness, and your lack of individualism. Beauty varies. Comparing the beauty of black and AFRICAN women to that of Foreign, near white, international women is like comparing apples and oranges. Apples are uniquely appealing in their own way as are oranges.
What one society deems as the standard of beauty another may not. Someone like Liza who would make an ignorant, sheepish, and closed minded comment like that make it clear her worldliness doesn’t extend beyond stereotypes, media hypes and ignorance!
Wed 21 Nov 2007 at 13:40:33
Furthermore….Liza should get her face out of the television, and from staring at fashion magazines and step out into the REAL WORLD! Or grow up and get a life!
Tue 15 Jan 2008 at 21:39:18
Hey heres to that Liza guy im a Black Brazilian and alot of the brazilian black women you see up there call themselfs black brazilians to or just Brazilians you no nothing.. why do you think there under Black Brazilian Models ?
Fri 18 Jan 2008 at 21:48:02
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7195679.stm
Fri 18 Jan 2008 at 21:49:22
look at the report from BBC website about the racism in Sao Paulo Fashion Week.
Sat 19 Jan 2008 at 00:47:36
Good link. Thanks.
Tue 22 Jan 2008 at 04:25:26
Interesting comments posted here, some seem to be posted by children. I’m a dark skinned black american and I was online search photos of Suyane and found this blog. I’ve always been attracted to women of color, especially black and native mix. I never knew why and just found out a few weeks ago my great grandmother was half black and half native. You would be surprised how much people favor one another all around the world. I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the world and have experienced this first hand (watch “The Journey of Man”).
I usually never comment on any blogs, no myspace, facebook are any of that. Just felt the need to here. First off most blacks in America have other blood running in their veins. That’s why I mentioned my great grandmother. You can take blacks in America and blacks in Africa and see very different and very similar features. Each country has its own way of determining race. In America you were considered black by the colonizers (at that time) even if you had 1% African blood in you. This was to keep you from gaining ground socially and advancing. This is something that carries on today not knowing why we just say you’re black. If one parent is white the other black, you’re considered black. Look at Tiger Woods for example, his father was black and mother Asian. He got chewed up when he said he’s not black. But his point was that to say that he is only black is a disrespect to his mother and her culture with no acknowledgement.
Second of all I don’t care what anyone says Brasil is a black country and I say that by means of culture and background. More slaves were taken to Brasil than any other colony during that time. After the Portuguese, most of the Europeans came after the abolishment of slavery and most migrated to southern Brasil, the culture was already established. Look at the music, dance, food, etc. “Trust me, samba was not created by europeans.” Also today, Brasil is the most mixed (blood wise) country in the world. This is partly because the Portuguese unlike the English colonizers were allowed to intermarry with the Blacks and natives. In Brasil you have the option to say you are whatever you want to be. I met a girl when I was in Brasil who told me she’s white and I laughed in her face. She looked just like my sister. My father is light skinned and mother dark skinned. Most people that claim themselves to be white are not 100% white and deny their indigenous and/or black blood in Brasil and other Latin countries. There are many beautiful black women in America, they are just not represented quantitatively as white women and even Latin women. Most successful black women in America are not light skinned as someone mentioned and blacks do not dominate entertainment (maybe heavy music influence). Beyonce may have light skin but look how dark her father is, my complexion. Also most true black American music geniuses are influenced by black Brasilians, such as Quincy Jones, India Arie, Stevie Wonder and others.
It’s the media that makes us all debate on silly topics such as this. Majority of whites will not admit but all wish they had bigger butts, lips and darker skin. When traveling out of the U.S. I’ve seen white American men you would never see with a black woman in America probably because of what their peers or family would say. But soon as they cross that water from the B.S. in America, they go out and find the darkest girl to fulfill their fantasies of being with a black woman. And yes most of them married some with grandkids. I’ve even had a white European to tell me while I was in the Dominican Republic he wish he had skin like mine.
Most people in Brasil would claim to be anything but black due to social problems there as well as here in America. They feel they can advanced further on the job or in school saying they are not black. But I have witnessed most Brasilians who are black coming to terms with being black or having black blood admitting it and admitting it proudly. However, in today’s society, especially in America it’s not even about race anymore, it’s about class. You can have a rich black person in America accepted by society with wealth and have a poor white person not accepted. For example, I’ve experienced more racism in Latin America than I have in North America due to the color of my skin, but when they found out I was American, it was all good and the treatment was different.
From looking at the models on this blog you can tell they all have blood of another race but the black features are dominant, whether it’s the hair, face or skin. Racism is a problem all around the world, especially in the Caribbean, Central and South America. I mention these places because if you ask anyone from these countries they would say race is not an issue. Yet you see all the black and brown people at the bottom. It is a problem if it’s not discussed and swept under the rug. You can look in Essence and Ebony magazines in America and see many beautiful black women, as well as looking in the Brasilian black magazine Raca. Outside of Africa, Brasil has the largest population of black people in the world. And in my opinion some of the most beautiful black women in the world. But just as those in America they are not well represented. There are many Tais Araujo’s and Suyane Moreira’s, just not given opportunities. Also to make my comments even more interesting there are even many beautiful black people in Mexico, yes there are blacks in Mexico, but they’re swept under the rug. And lastly, I was reading an article a few years ago and a reporter was talking to a brasilian model (don’t remember her name) and he asked her what she considered herself to be and she said black. His response was you are so beautiful why would you want to be black!!!! Meu Deus ajuda por favor!!!
Wed 23 Jan 2008 at 13:36:17
Good comment. Thanks.
You might be interested in my post on race in Brazil:
http://abagond.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/race-in-brazil/
Wed 23 Jan 2008 at 20:15:05
How can I learn more about Brazilian Black culture and Brazil in itself? Can someone please send me some links? I would like to visit Salvador (Bahia), Rio, or Sao Paulo. Can you tell me what is it to do there and where is a good place to stay?
jhamalmckee@hotmail.com
Fri 25 Jan 2008 at 02:09:12
If you want to learn about Brasil’s culture or anything all you have to do is do a search on the internet. You can find out all about Brasil. But a good place to start is
http://www.bahia-online.net. As far as the black culture it gets no blacker in brasil than Salvador.
Sat 12 Apr 2008 at 04:45:46
James Jones, you are right on point. Let me add a few things. Victors don’t only right the history of a place, they also define the standard of beauty.
Euro-dominated countries usually have the same standard of beauty. They uphold and advance the superiority of aquiline facial features.
Here is the other insidious component of the issue. Everyplace that is non euro-dominated that consumes images i.e. movies, t.v., and magazines from those euro-dominated societies it usually accepts those notions on beauty as well. That’s why the hold world is gripped by the same nonsence. With that there is always a subculture that idolizes Black features and culture. You can walk through Japan and see kids with Afros break dancing and rapping;-)
Here is something to leave you good folks with. A university of California school did a DNA study using the mitochondrial strand of DNA from various ethnicities from around the world. They concluded that around 200,000 years ago that everyone on this planet descends from an African woman. Check out Newsweek Magazine from January the 11, 1988 entitled the Search for Adam and Eve.
Sat 5 Jul 2008 at 02:19:27
Cont. from last comment-
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OV6A8oGtPc4
James Jones, I think you may mean Zoe Saldana
Tue 15 Jul 2008 at 19:53:55
“black women in America are pretty washed out with rounder eyes and lower cheekbones.”
Keep thinking that way. There is a whole entire culture of us, most of you people don’t acknowledge. We are African, Indian and most of us have been that way prior to the whole mixed culture of today. Most of us are tall, and thin. No excessive butts, and we are reddish in color. We have extremely high cheekbones, our faces are somewhat narrower than average, the eyes almond shaped and the lip sometimes full. We are only black when it is convenient for everyone else. Other than that, we are black Indians.
Thu 31 Jul 2008 at 19:35:54
Black is beautiful everyone has some black ancestry as well as black ppl having other ancestry as well my father is mixed an alot of his family are mixed my children are mixed as well.we’re the most disliked ppl an yet every one wants some part of us in the end everyone loves us i jus think we need to grow up and get along i mean jee wiz we’re all mixed think about it an think hard,the blackest person with a wide nose may not b black they may b spanish or indian u cant jus base things off of looks im dark brown my father was lightskinned now red bone like the native american complex so stop ….
Mon 15 Sep 2008 at 06:42:04
James Jones you are correct for the most part.Except for when you said “real”(wtf u mean real,i know waht you’re saying but stil wtf do you mean real.) black american musicians were inspired by black brazilian musicians.If anything black americans have in inspired the majority of the music world(rock,rap,etc all started by blacks).Also I hate white people that go find the darkest black perosn or a black person in general so they can act out a fantasy.They are basically making blacks into a fucking sex object.
Wed 29 Oct 2008 at 02:42:08
dcnot420 Says:
true
Thu 30 Oct 2008 at 20:10:15
Crazy
Thu 30 Oct 2008 at 21:33:59
The strongest things in Brazilian culture that people identify with is black. Look at the carnival, listen to the beating of the drums. Take that and the black people away from Brazil and the equation equals boring race of people. A lot of Brazilians are catholic which really means holly cat (cat-holic), which really refers to the Spinx of Egypt. So for them to know the truth about themselves maybe they should start there.
A lot of Nazi’s from world war two were given asylum throughout south America, and change their names etc and were aloud to do business as usual as chairmen of major companies etc. Media, Banking, Health and even set companies up. (Watch boys from Brazil)
Most of the top supermodels from Brazil and any other sector apart from sport, could be from anywhere in Europe when you look at them, do you really believe this is because of natural selection?
Wed 7 Jan 2009 at 02:01:01
All this talk about race is crazy. Some have said such ignorant things, I cannot believe it.
Get a grip! I am African-American, been to Brazil, love the culture, food and mostly the music. Folks there have tried to make racist comments to me, and give me attitute, of course, whites and I just put them in their place, just like I do here in the US. Seems like the whole world is obsessed with color, hair, etc. Well, now that Barack Obama is our President, at least that’s some progress. It won’t change things overnight. As for the modeling industry, it is racist! White, European looks are still preferred, even though we have beautiful models of all degrees of color in their skin. Will that change? maybe someday. Brazil’s breakdown of color, hair, etc. is seriously deep! and unfortunate. They have names for every shade of skin color, just like paint color palettes you find at Home Depot, we are not paint colors, folks!! What a world!
Thu 12 Feb 2009 at 22:00:24
wow! many sexy & beautiful women of color in the world and yet we still have some here crying about acceptance by white americaa!
hey, love theyself first and not worry about what another race thinks about you or if being accepted amongst your own so called group. confidence is sexy and it translates to others!
Sat 4 Apr 2009 at 23:26:56
Black American women are just as attractive as “black” women from other parts of the world. Whoever says otherwise have never been outside their little narrow world. Yes our sisters in Latin America are sexy but so are many sisters north of the border and as for black and white mixing more in Brazil that is primarily because the Portuguese men left their women back in Portugual until late in the 17th century and even then they continued to mate with black and native women.
But so did white men in the American South especially Mississippi and Louisiana. For some to say that black American shows their ignorance and white mindedness. Also it is not that Latin American white men mate with black women because they are so in love with them, they mate with them because a good number of women of color in Latin America are employed as live in domestics giving white men more access to them.
After no other country in the world outside of the United States has produced an Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou or a Michelle Obama. Latin America did not even elect noticeably black beauty queens until at least the 21st century while Vanessa Williams was chosen Miss America in 1983. From some of the comments about blacks that many Latin Americans have, I am glad that the slave ship dropped my ancestors off in Mississippi.
Sun 28 Jun 2009 at 06:50:23
To the first poster, liza. You are very racist, I don’t know why you came to this site and bothered to leave a message. Most Blacks in North America ALSO are of African, Indian, and European descent just like the Blacks from Central and South America, and the Caribbean. These models are of African descent whether or not they choose to call themselves black. Oh, and Afro-Brazilians are NOT outnumbered by whites they make up approx. half of the population and that doesn’t even include “whites” that are of African descent. Whites are the minority. Not only that, you wouldn’t know the difference between an African American, and a Black person from any other country. You know why, because you can’t see nationality.
@ Sparkle
Agreed 100%