Born to Sing: Deborah Di Maski

By Lindenberg Junior

After five years working as a flight attendant for Varig Brazilian airlines, including many international trips, Deborah gets her bachelor degree from a recognized Law School in Rio de Janeiro and started to work as a lawyer. In 1978 she decided to come to Los Angeles and face a new experience in her life.

This native from Curitiba, Parana, lived for twelve years in Rio before arrived in sunny California. Deborah starts to play at the age of 8 and went to “Escola de Musica e Belas Artes do Parana” (a famous music school in her native Curitiba) and was part of the church choir that her father used to go every Sunday. She wanted to be a singer. She wanted to be a star.

Deborah always admired the Bossa Nova movement and figures such as Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Morais. While living in Rio, she studied singing at the “Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro” (Rio famous theater and school).

Living in Los Angeles, Deborah worked for many years as a waitress in nightclubs and became a mother of her only child, Christopher. The turning point of her musical career was in 2008 when she won a beauty contest and received the title of “Miss Elegance”. In this opportunity, she sings “Ever Green” (Barbra Streisand) in front of hundreds of people during the event. Her performance made the heads of the event and the audience very impressed. Since then, Deborah did not stop singing.

When Michael Jackson died in 2009, she wrote lyrics for the song “he is out of our lives”. Then she showed the lyrics to her producer Rich Wenzel with one thing on her mind: seized the moment and record her first album that would include all the songs she had the opportunity to talk about in the company of Michael Jackson. “Michael had so much interest in Brazil and we had the opportunity to talk about our culture as well the beauty and the versatility of the Brazilian music”, said Deborah.

Deborah’s first album “why not you” on a tribute to Michael Jackson, in addition to Brazilian songs, also includes the songs in English, “Ben” and “Smile”. “I included these two songs in honor of Michael as these two songs meant a lot to him! Once I asked what Ben meant, and he answered me: Ben is a meaning for a rejected person”, add Deborah.

A few years later, she recorded her second album with her Brazilian friend, musician, producer, and Los Angeles resident, Antonio Carlos Santa’nna. However, the album was not finalized because of Santa’nna tragic death. With the help of another musician and producer, Pablo Medina, she could finally finalize her second album, “incredible yesterday” that have fifteen songs.

In 2018 she completed another project. A vinyl album with 5 songs titled “You and I” and that was remixed by talented Japanese producer Yuki Takahashi in Tokio. Her next album (coming up soon) will have Brazilian musician Rick Pantoja as the producer. She comments that her musical projects will continue as long as she has the strength to sing.

“My life is about music. I sing with my soul and throughout my music, I send the message of love to the world”, said Debora Di Maski. For what I know from Deborah, I think music rejuvenates her spirit and singing feeds her soul.