Black Brazilian models

Here are the most beautiful black Brazilian women models that I know of who are famous enough to be in the Portuguese Wikipedia. Some no longer model, but all have modelled at some point. I count as black anyone who is Afro-Brazilian, which is close to the English meaning of the word.

1. Taís Araújo (1978- ), from Rio, became the first black actress to appear as a main character in a telenovela on Brazilian television. She is a presenter on the television show “Superbonita”, about how to be beautiful! More.

2. Adriana Bombom (1974- ) is a Carnival queen from Rio. She she was once one of Xuxa’s helpers. What a body! More.

3. Ildi Silva (1982- ) is a television actress from Bahia. She was discovered on the streets of Salvador and became a model. She says that in Brazil she is seen as neither black nor white. According to the BBC she is one-fifth African by blood and one-tenth native Indian. Her green eyes are Dutch. More.

4. Rojane Fradique (1986- ) is a fashion model from Bahia in the north where most people are black. She is tall (1.82 metres), extremely thin but looks like a work of art. In 2003 she placed second in Brazil in the Elite Model Look contest and 15th worldwide. More.

5. Camila Pitanga (1977- ) is a Brazilian model and television actress from Rio. Best known in Brazil as Bebel on the telenovela “Paraíso Tropical”. Ildi Silva, listed above, plays a secretary on the same show. Her father is black, her mother is white.

6. Adriana Lima (1981- ) is a model from Salvador in Bahia, where she grew up without a father. She is the highest paid Brazilian model after Gisele Bundchen. She has modelled for Victoria’s Secret and Maybelline. She is friends with Raica Oliveira. More.

7. Lucy Ramos (1982- ) is a model and television actress. She is best known for her role in the show “Sinhá Moça”. She was born in Recife in Pernambuco. More.

8. Marina Montini (1948-2006) was a beauty from Rio in the 1960s and 1970s. She was so beautiful that men painted pictures of her, especially Di Cavalcanti. Her heavy drinking brought her to an early end at age 58.

9. Suyane Moreira (1982- ), from the state of Ceara in the north, is part black, part native Indian. She has been in Vogue magazine in Italy, Germany and France and on the runways in London and New York. She says that people hold her colour and her looks against her more often in Brazil than elsewhere.

10. Deise Nunes (1968- ) was Miss Brazil in 1986, the first black woman to win the title and, more than 20 years later, still the only one. She came in sixth place in Miss Universe.

Black models in Brazil have broken into advertising since the 1990s, but the fashion industry is still very white.