[1] Elza was deemed dangerous by the Military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985), and in 1970 her house in the Jardim Botânico neighborhood, in Rio de Janeiro, was machine-gunned by regime agents.

[5] Her father Avelino Gomes was a factory worker and guitarist, and her mother Rosária Maria da Conceição was a washerwoman.

When she was 12, she was forced by her father to marry Lourdes Antônio Soares, also known as Alaúrdes, and within a year later gave birth to her first child, João Carlos.

Soares liked to sing, and when she needed money for medicine for her son, she participated in a vocal contest presented by Ary Barroso at Rádio Tupi.

On 11 January 1986, her son died when he was 9 years old in a car accident as he was coming back from visiting his father's hometown, Magé.

[6] She became popular with her first single "Se Acaso Você Chegasse", on which she introduced scat singing à la Louis Armstrong, adding a bit of jazz to samba, however, Elza said that she did not know American music at the time.

After finishing her second album, A Bossa Negra, she went to Chile to represent Brazil in the 1962 FIFA World Cup and met Louis Armstrong.

In 2000, she was named Best Singer of the Millennium by the BBC in London, where she performed a concert with Gal Costa, Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and Virgínia Rodrigues.

During the same year, she played a series of avant-garde concerts directed by José Miguel Wisnik in Rio de Janeiro.

Soares scored a number of hits in Brazil throughout her career, including "Se Acaso Você Chegasse" (1960), "Boato" (1961), "Cadeira Vazia" (1961), "Só Danço Samba" (1963), "Mulata Assanhada" (1965), and "Aquarela Brasileira" (1974).

While not as successful in sales as her previous release, the album carried on the theme of mixing samba and bossa nova with modern electronic music and effects.

The album included collaborations with Nando Reis, Fred 04 (former leader of mangue beat band Mundo Livre S/A), and Zé Keti.

[10] The follow-up Planet Fome was considered one of the 25 best Brazilian albums of the second half of 2019 by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics.

[11] For this album, she planned a cover of "Comida", by Titãs featuring the then current members of the band (Branco Mello, Sérgio Britto and Tony Bellotto), but she ended up choosing to save the song for later and it was released in October 2020 to mark the album's first anniversary and to celebrate its nomination for the Latin Grammy Award.