Her father Gomes Soares was a factory worker and guitarist, and her mother Rosária Maria Gomes was a washerwoman. She was born in the Moça Bonita, a favela in the Padre Miguel neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. During her childhood, Soares played on the streets, spun wooden tops, flew kites, and fought with boys. Despite poverty and having to carry buckets of water on her head, she had a happy childhood. 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 her son, she participated in a vocal contest presented by Ary Barroso at Rádio Tupi. She was given money for participating and was then able to buy the medicine. When she was fifteen, she gave birth to her second child, who died. After her husband became ill with tuberculosis, she began working at the Veritas soap factory in the Engenho de Dentro neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. At twenty-one she was a widow, alone to raise her children: four boys and one girl. She dreamed of becoming a singer.