Winner of an Edison Award and nominated several times for the Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, Maria Mendes is a singer-songwriter from Porto whose heart and soul belong to jazz. She studied in New York, Brussels, Rotterdam, and Porto, and her talent and work have been praised by music legends such as Quincy Jones and Hermeto Pascoal.

Based in the Netherlands for several years, Mendes made her debut in 2012 with Along the Road (Dot Time Records, New York) and, in 2015, released Innocentia (self-released, with distribution by Sony Music Portugal).

In 2019, the artist released Close To Me, her third album, issued by Justin Time Records (the label that launched Diana Krall to worldwide fame), featuring the collaboration of GRAMMY-winning arranger, pianist, and producer John Beasley.

Far from exhausting the possibilities of that project, Maria Mendes released in 2022 Saudade, Colour of Love, a live album recorded in collaboration with the Metropole Orkest.

In recent years, the artist has toured internationally, performing in some of the world’s most prestigious venues, such as the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Bimhuis Amsterdam, the Blue Note Jazz Club NYC, SESC Pompeia (São Paulo, Brazil), as well as at festivals including North Sea Jazz and Montreux Jazz. In Portugal, she has performed at Misty Fest, Casa da Música (Porto), São Luiz Teatro Municipal, and Palácio Baldaya, in Lisbon.

Her song "Inverso", with Anat Cohen, was included in the soundtrack of the Portuguese telenovela Ouro Verde, winner of the International Emmy Award. With the blessing of Wayne Shorter, the artist premiered her contemporary jazz work Gaia in Germany in 2022.