As a young woman, Miranda designed clothes and hats in a boutique before making her debut as a singer, recording with composer Josué de Barros in 1929.

The 1939 musical Banana da Terra (directed by Ruy Costa) gave the world her "Baiana" image, inspired by Afro-Brazilians from the north-eastern state of Bahia.

[5] In 1939, Broadway producer Lee Shubert offered Miranda an eight-week contract to perform in The Streets of Paris after seeing her at Cassino da Urca in Rio de Janeiro.

[6] The following year she made her first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way with Don Ameche and Betty Grable, and her exotic clothing and Brazilian Portuguese accent became her trademark.

[7] That year, she was voted the third-most-popular personality in the United States; she and her group, Bando da Lua, were invited to sing and dance for President Franklin D.

Several months after the film's release, according to Cinearte magazine, "Carmen Miranda is currently the most popular figure in Brazilian cinema, judging by the sizeable correspondence that she receives".

President Getúlio Vargas, recognizing the value to Brazil of Miranda's tour, announced that the Brazilian government would pay for the band's transportation on the Moore-McCormack Lines between Rio and New York.

[34] Vargas believed that Miranda would foster ties between the northern and southern hemispheres and act as a goodwill ambassador in the United States, increasing Brazil's share of the American coffee market.

Winchell's praise of Carmen and her Bando da Lua was repeated on his Blue Network radio show, which reached 55 million listeners daily.

[44] When news of Broadway's latest star (known as the Brazilian Bombshell) reached Hollywood, Twentieth Century-Fox began to develop a film featuring Miranda.

[48] The Shuberts brought Miranda back to Broadway, teaming her with Olsen and Johnson, Ella Logan, and the Blackburn Twins in the musical revue Sons o' Fun on 1 December 1941.

[52] The Good Neighbor policy had been linked to US interference in Latin America; Roosevelt sought better diplomatic relations with Brazil and other South American nations, and pledged to refrain from military intervention (which had occurred to protect US business interests in industries such as mining or agriculture).

"[54] On 15 July, Miranda appeared in a charity concert organized by Brazilian First Lady Darci Vargas and attended by members of Brazil's high society.

"[59] Years later, Clive Hirschhorn wrote: "That Night in Rio was the quintessential Fox war-time musical – an over-blown, over-dressed, over-produced and thoroughly irresistible cornucopia of escapist ingredients.

[71] After World War II, Miranda's films at Fox were produced in black-and-white, indicative of Hollywood's diminishing interest in her and Latin Americans in general.

"[74] In If I'm Lucky (1946), her follow-up film for Fox when she was no longer under contract, Miranda was again fourth on the bill with her stock screen persona firmly in evidence: heavily accented English, comic malapropisms, and bizarre hairstyles recreating her famous turbans.

Miranda's ambition was to play a lead role showcasing her comic skills, which she set out to do in Copacabana (1947, an independent production released by United Artists starring Groucho Marx).

In the first production MGM wanted to portray a different image, allowing her to remove her turban and reveal her own hair (styled by Sydney Guilaroff) and makeup (by Jack Dawn).

Despite MGM's efforts to change Miranda's persona, her roles in both productions were peripheral, watered-down caricatures relying on fractured English and over-the-top musical and dance numbers.

[85] Miranda performed at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in April 1955, and in Cuba three months later before returning to Los Angeles to recuperate from a recurrent bronchial ailment.

[95] About 60,000 people attended her memorial service at the Rio de Janeiro town hall,[19] and more than half a million Brazilians escorted her funeral cortège to the cemetery.

[99][100] Miranda's Hollywood image was that of a generic Latina, blurring distinctions between Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, and Mexico and samba, tango and habanera music.

[101] Her enormous, fruit-laden hats were iconic visuals recognized worldwide; Saks Fifth Avenue developed a line of Miranda-inspired turbans and jewelry in 1939, and Bonwit Teller created mannequins resembling the singer.

According to Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, "Miranda was first a cause of both pride and shame, and later, a symbol that inspired the merciless gaze we began to cast upon ourselves  ... Carmen conquered 'White' America as no other South American has done or ever would, in an era when it was enough to be 'recognizably Latin and Negroid' in style and aesthetics to attract attention.

The square is located at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Orange Drive, across from Grauman's Chinese Theatre, near where Miranda gave an impromptu performance on V-J Day.

[118][119] Miranda, Selena, Celia Cruz, Carlos Gardel and Tito Puente appeared on a set of commemorative US Postal Service Latin Music Legends stamps, painted by Rafael Lopez, in 2011.

Marie Therese Dominguez, vice president of government relations and public policy for the postal service, said: "From this day forward, these colorful, vibrant images of our Latin music legends will travel on letters and packages to every single household in America.

[135] In Diplomatic Courier (1952), during a nightclub sequence, Arthur Blake performs impersonations of Carmen Miranda, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Bette Davis.

[138] In 2004, Caetano Veloso and David Byrne performed live at Carnegie Hall a song they had written together, "Dreamworld: Marco de Canaveses", that pays homage to Miranda.

In 2007, BBC Four produced Carmen Miranda – Beneath the Tutti Frutti Hat, a one-hour documentary which included interviews with biographer Ruy Castro, niece Carminha and Mickey Rooney.