Name

Mamonas Assassinas - Topic

Description

Mamonas Assassinas was a Brazilian comedy rock band. Known originally as Utopia, Their musical style employed a humorous mixture between rock and a wide range of styles, often borrowing elements from other music, among which were the main riff of the Portuguese Vira, Northeastern Brazilian rhythms like forró, Mexican music, heavy metal, sertanejo, and even pagode.
The band's name carries a double-entendre as, in Portuguese, mamonas can be either the name of the Castor oil plant, which contains the highly toxic compound ricin or the augmentative for mamas, meaning breasts. The band mentioned model Mari Alexandre as an influence to the name, and even translated the name into English as "Killer Big Breasts".
On 2 March 1996, the plane in which the band was traveling crashed into the Cantareira mountain range, near São Paulo, killing all five band members, and leaving keyboardist Marcio Araujo, as the last surviving member of the band. Their short lived and "meteoric" success were celebrated for decades and the members are remembered and celebrated even to the present day in Brazil.