Her music career began when a close friend and guitar teacher Elodir Barontini invited her to sing at a dinner with Odeon's marketing manager.

The last, composed by Chico Buarque, was featured in the soundtrack of the film Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, by Bruno Barreto, which helped to popularize the music.

An excerpt from the Projeto comments on her success: In 1977, beyond launching 'Face a Face' and the Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands soundtrack, she was acclaimed in a spectacle at the Museu de Arte Moderna.

"[8] Two years later, on December 12, 1979, her next LP Pedaços was launched at Canecão Rio de Janeiro; it was positively received by critics and drew over 120,000 attendees for the album tour.

[10] According to Revista Veja (Brazil's largest weekly news magazine): "Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira was born twice.

Also in 1979, she was present at the Festival de Música Popular Brasileira, interpreting Para Lennon & McCartney (by Márcio and Lô Borges and Fernando Brant).

Mulher 80 (Rede Globo) exhibited a series of interviews and musicals discussing women's role in society with an approach to the national music evolution and the predominance of female voices, including Elis Regina, Maria Bethânia, Fafá de Belém, Marina Lima, Simone, Rita Lee, Joanna, Zezé Motta, Gal Costa and Regina Duarte and Narjara Turetta from the Malu Mulher TV series.

In February 1982, 15,000 to 20,000 people attended Canta Brasil to see her perform music by Milton Nascimento, Ary Barroso, Chico Buarque, Tom Jobim, Fernando Brant, Vítor Martins, Paulo César Pinheiro, Hermínio Bello de Carvalho, Isolda, Sueli Costa and Abel Silva.

In December 1983, she drew a crowd of 150,000 people to Quinta da Boa Vista to see a live transmission of Rede Globo for a New Year's TV show.

She helped raise funds with Nordeste já,[13] a Brazilian version of the American charity efforts We are the World or USA for Africa.

Notable recent performances include the ones in Peru, where the audience stood by the stage clapping for more than five minutes straight; and in Miami, along with Ivan Lins.

[15] During her childhood and teenage years, the main influences on this romantic repertoire were Roberto Carlos, Maysa Matarazzo, Dolores Duran, Ângela Maria, and Nora Ney—names of the samba-canção or fossa (gloom) genre.

[17] Among her albums recorded after the 1980s, those that stand out include Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira (1995), featuring ballads among other classic and consecrated samba composers; Café com Leite (1996), a tribute to Martinho da Vila; Seda Pura, an incursion into pop (2001) and Baiana da gema, a tribute to Ivan Lins (2004)--works regarded as a reunion of a more refined repertoire and more selective arrangements.

[18]As an interpreter of others' compositions, Simone has foregrounded Ivan Lins, Vitor Martins, Milton Nascimento, Fernando Brant, Paulo César Pinheiro, Gonzaguinha, Chico Buarque, Martinho da Vila, Fátima Guedes, João Bosco, Aldir Blanc, Isolda, Roberto Carlos, Hermínio Bello de Carvalho, Paulinho da Viola, Sueli Costa and Abel Silva.

[22] Alongside Jones, Brad Mehldau, compares her to Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington, referring to her "strong identity, passion, and grace".