She is regarded, in her short life, as the first fado singer to have risen to fame, attaining a near-mythical status after her death.

Severa is said to have been a tall and gracious courtesan or prostitute, and would sing the fado in taverns where she would also play the Portuguese guitar.

She died of tuberculosis aged 26, on 30 November 1846 in Rua do Capelão, Lisbon, and was buried in a common grave in the Alto de São João Cemetery.

In 1931, director Leitão de Barros turned the play into the first Portuguese film to feature sound, A Severa.

A romantic musical, Maria Severa Onofriana, opened on 19 July 2011 at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, with book, music and lyrics by Jay Turvey and Paul Sportelli, directed by Jackie Maxwell and starring Julie Martell as Maria Severa.