She became an amateur singer in her teens, in church choirs. She moved to São Paulo in 1975 to study sociology, but Arrigo Barnabé's successful show and album Clara Crocodilo (1980) changed her mind. Barnabé's Tubarões Voadores (1983) confirmed her as a singer of immense possibilities. Besides being a chorus member in recording sessions and performances, she sang for other names of the vanguarda paulista, like Itamar Assumpção. Her first solo album came in 1986, Vânia Bastos. Having her albums produced by her husband, the awarded Eduardo Gudin, from 1989 on, she has recorded Eduardo Gudin e Vânia Bastos (1989), Vânia Bastos (1990), Cantando Caetano (1992), Canta Mais (1994), Vânia Bastos & Cordas - Canções de Tom Jobim (1995), Diversões Não Eletrônicas (1997), and Belas feras (1999). ~ Alvaro Neder