"[1] Anabela Braz Pires was born on 22 September 1976 in Almada, Portugal, a suburb of Lisbon situated across the Tagus River.

[2] That year she represented Portugal at the UNICEF Song Festival in the Netherlands where she received second place and won the Danny Kaye Award for Best Interpreter.

Her fourth album was released in 1996 and was called Primeiras Águas (First Water), which yielded the hit song "Avenidas" written by Clara Pinto Correia and Rui Veloso.

In 2000, she recorded four tracks with the Galician musician Carlos Núñez for his album Mayo Longo (Long May),[10] and participated in the promotional tour, which lasted two and a half years and took her around the world.

Returning to Portugal in 2002, she continued her association with La Féria, playing protagonist Eliza Doolittle in the Lisbon production of My Fair Lady.

Taking a break of less than a month Anabela returned to the stage on 30 May 2008[15] at the Teatro Politeama, in Lisbon, working again with La Féria.

[17] In 28 November 2008 she participated in La Féria's newest musical production, Amor Sem Barreiras, the Portuguese adaptation of West Side Story, at Lisbon's Politeama.

Anabela plays the role of Anita, the sensual and confident woman whose boyfriend is the leader of the Sharks, a gang composed by the first generation of Americans from Puerto Rico.