Joyce, in her international career, has recorded 21 solo discs and has had almost 300 recordings of her songs by some of the greatest names in brazilian and international music, such as Flora Purim, Milton Nascimento, Elis Regina, Gal Costa, Maria Bethânia, Elizeth Cardoso, Simone, Wallace Roney, and others. Her compositions have been featured in television, theater, and film soundtracks, such as The Player by Robert Altman. Touring internationally every year, she consolidated herself as an original artist with a distinctive voice and a personal compositional style predominantly celebrating her feminine condition.

Her first recording, as a member of a vocal group, was in 1964 on the LP Conjunto Sambacana Vol. 3. The first solo album came in 1968, Third Wish (Philips). The album wasn't successful because it already had Joyce's pioneering trademark, the woman as subject sung in the first-person, and that was a difficult thing to swallow back then. She recorded two albums for that label (the next being Encontro Marcado, 1969), always helped by extremely competent arrangers Dori Caymmi, Gaya, and Luiz Eça, but the consolidation of her musical style would only come later. In 1970, she joined the group A Tribo, which had important musicians like Nelson Ângelo, Toninho Horta, Novelli, and Naná Vasconcelos (later replaced by drummer Nenê). Backed by them, she recorded a four-track record for EMI, with "Caqui," "Adeus Maria Fulô," "Nada Será Como Antes," and "The Man from the Avenue" (1971). In the next year, signing with Odeon, she recorded with Nelson Ângelo the LP Nelson Angelo E Joyce.

Taking herself off the music scene, she returned in 1975, invited by Vinícius de Moraes to accompany him on an international tour both as a singer and as a guitar player. In one of the tour spots, Rome, Joyce met the Italian producer Sergio Bardotti, who produced an album with her for the Italian label Fonit-Cetra, "Urban Bird" (released in Brazil by Continental as Passarinho Urbano two years later). In 1977 she moved to New York where she committed herself to record an album produced by Claus Ogerman featuring Michael Brecker and other brilliant musicians, but it was never released. However, that short stint with American jazz musicians confirmed to her her own style. In 1980, her song "Clareana" (with Maurício Maestro), a lullaby dedicated to her daughters Clara and Ana, was successful at that year's MPB Festival, becoming a national hit, a fact that put her career in perspective. Her songs were in that time successfully recorded by such stars as Milton Nascimento, Elis Regina, Maria Bethânia, and many others.

Signing a new contract with EMI, Joyce recorded Feminina (1980), her first solo work under her own conception. The next, Agua E Luz featured virtuoso accordionist Sivuca. Her own independent production for Tardes Cariocas (1984) was fruitful as the album was awarded Best Independent Album of the Year. Saudade do futuro (Pointer, 1985) earned her an invitation for the Yamaha Festival in Japan. This was followed by an album with small distribution on the label Funarte in a joint-venture with Continental, devoted to the important sambista Wilson Batista ("Wilson Batista, o Samba Foi Sua Glória", 1986).

With her international career at full speed, Joyce has recorded many albums since then, in Brazil, the U.S. (Verve), Japan, and Germany. During the '90s, in the heat of the dance-oriented new bossa or drum n bossa movement, her music had additional impetus in Europe, more specifically in England. In 1997, she released a book chronicling the behind-the-scenes world of mpb, Fotografei Você na Minha Rolleyflex (MultiMais Editorial). ~ Alvaro Neder, Rovi