Tim Maia was a Brazilian musician, songwriter, and businessman known for his iconoclastic, ironic, outspoken, and humorous musical style. Maia contributed to Brazilian music within a wide variety of musical genres, including soul, funk, disco, jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, romantic ballads, samba, bossa nova, baião and música popular brasileira. He introduced the soul style on the Brazilian musical scene. Along with Jorge Ben, Maia pioneered sambalanço, combining samba, soul, funk and rock and roll. He is recognized as one of the biggest icons in Brazilian music.
Maia recorded numerous albums and toured extensively in a long career. After his death in 1998, his recorded oeuvre has shown enduring popularity. A theatrical retrospective of his career, the popular musical Vale Tudo, was first staged in Rio de Janeiro in 2012.