Zilda de Carvalho Espíndola (March 31, 1904 – January 8, 1985), professionally known as Aracy Cortes, was a Brazilian singer, dancer and actress.

She is best known for bringing the traditional Brazilian samba forms into theatre (see samba-canção) and for being the first artist to perform Ary Barroso's "Aquarela do Brasil" in 1939.

Her family moved to Catumbi, where her neighbor was a young boy who played the flute, Pixinguinha, the founder of the group Oito batutas.

This recognition came with the music "Que Pedaço," by Sena Pinto (1923), and another success immediately after, "Jura," by Sinhô (1928).

With performances running in the revue theaters that gathered the cream of the artistic crop, she was projected as the first major popular woman singer, standing out among the almost exclusivism of the masculine voices of the time.