Caetano Veseloo, born 7 August 1942, is one of Brazil’s most prominent and influential singers and composers. He was the fifth child of seven children to Jose Telles Veloso (“Seu Zezinho”), and Claudionor Vianna Telles Veloso (“Dona Cano”), born in Santo Amaro da Purificacao da Purificacao (Bahia), Brazil. Maria Bethania, his younger sister, was his first success as a singer in mid-1960s. He started his career singing bossa Nova and he cites his most influential musical influences as Dorival Caymmi and Joao Gilberto. Joao Gilberto later stated that Caetano added an intellectual dimension and intellectual dimension to Brazilian popular music. With such musical collaborators as Gal Costa, Tom Ze and Chico Buarque and Os Mutantes, tropicalismo was born. This fusion of Brazilian pop and rock and roll with avant-garde art music created a more global, psychedelic and socially conscious sound. Veloso’s unapologetically leftist political stance earned him the hatred of Brazil’s military dictatorship, which ruled from 1985 to 1985. His songs were often censored and even banned. Veloso’s acceptance of and integration of non-nationalist elements (such as rock and roll) in music led to him being disowned by the socialist left of Brazil. Veloso and Gilberto Gil were both jailed for “anti-government activities” in 1968. They eventually fled to London. Caetano Venloso’s 1972 return to Brazil was marked by frequent appropriations of international styles as well as half-forgotten Brazilian folkloric rhythms and styles. His celebration of Afro-Brazilian culture in Bahia can be considered the precursor to such Afro-centric groups like Timbalada. Veloso gained popularity in the 1980s outside Brazil, particularly in Israel, Portugal and France. He was one of the most popular and respected international pop stars. His more than 50 recordings include songs that were used in soundtracks to films like Pedro Almodovar’s Hable con Ella (Talk to Her) and Frida. Veloso published a 2002 account of his early years and the Tropicalia movement in Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolutions in Brazil. A Foreign Sound (2004) was his first all-English CD. It featured Nirvana’s “Come as You Are”, as well as compositions from The Great American Songbook. Five of the six songs on his eponymous third album, which was released in 1971, were also available in English. You can also access user-contributed text under the Creative Commons By–SA License.
