She’s not sure of her exact age, but it doesn’t matter: the woman voted singer of the millennium stays timeless by collaborating with younger artists – and moving on from her painful past

You often hear a praying mantis before you see it. As a child, Elza Soares always liked listening to their buzz – the noise reminded her of her own raspy register – and she tried to emulate them with her voice. Then, when carrying buckets of water on her head to and from her house, she realised she could actually sing. “When I picked them up, I’d groan and, eventually, I realised that gave off a [musical] sound. So, I continued doing it: carrying the buckets and singing.”

Now 90 – though accounts vary, and even she isn’t sure of her age – Soares has evolved those buzzes and groans into one of Brazil’s most revered voices. Born in a favela slum in Rio de Janeiro to a washerwoman and a factory worker around 1930, she has recorded 36 studio albums, performed at the 2016 Olympic opening ceremony in Rio, and was voted the greatest singer of the last millennium by the BBC in 1999. She has released a string of singles this year – the newest is out this month, with the band Titãs – and still can’t bear to imagine a life without singing: “God forbid!”