Latest Release
- 23 FEB 2024
- 1 Song
- Prenda Minha ((Ao Vivo)) · 1998
- A Bossa de Caetano · 1985
- Caetanear · 1985
- A Bossa de Caetano · 1993
- Especial Ivete, Gil E Caetano (Deluxe Edition) [Ao Vivo] · 2012
- Divino Maravilhoso - Gal Costa Interpreta Caetano Veloso, Vol. 1 · 1969
- Pavarotti & Friends for Cambodia and Tibet · 2000
- Pavarotti & Friends for Cambodia and Tibet · 2000
- Muito Mais · 2005
- O Quereres (Tema de Abertura da Novela ”A Força do Querer”) - Single · 2017
Essential Albums
- 2006
- 1976
- 1975
- Caetano Veloso recorded Transa in 1972, near the end of a period of political exile in London. Although the sound of ’70s guitar rock dominates the album, Veloso’s weave of traditional Brazilian music—heard in percussive berimbau playing and pattering samba rhythms—give songs like “Neolithic Man” and “Mora Na Filosofia” a nostalgic potency. Although Veloso’s political messages are subdued throughout the album, the gently undermining “It’s a Long Way” later became an understated anthem of political subversion. Still, it’s the hazy melancholic imagery and laid-back acoustic sway of “Triste Bahia” (a song based on a text by lyrical 17th century poet Gregório de Matos) that possesses the most powerful emotional resonance.
- Caetano Veloso’s 1968 self-titled debut wasn’t actually his first album: a year earlier, the Brazilian singer-songwriter had released the bossa nova-laced Domingo with vocalist Gal Costa (which included the deliriously beautiful “Coração Vagabundo”). What a difference a year makes. Veloso’s solo debut is another beast entirely—a swaggering primal yawp that floats, bare-chested, through Brazilian beaches and the sertão, past a brutal colonial history and a gum-cracking pop-culture present, pulling psychedelic rock, samba and much more into its orbit. And Veloso fully flaunted his artistic licence while managing to stay—for the moment—under the radar of the military dictatorship, which had taken over in a U.S.-backed coup in 1964. It’s a magnificent trick: Veloso’s oblique lyrics often poke military censors in the eye, whether with the effervescent bohemian ramble of “Alegria, Alegria” (“I go… why not?”) or the infectious fluff of “Soy Loco Por Ti America”, which in fact champions a leftist vision for the South American continent. The opening track, “Tropicália”, manages to out-weird The Beatles, with its squealing cacophony of jungle sounds and hip-swivelling bravado. (That track, incidentally, furnished the tropicalismo musical movement with its name.) The youth ate it all up, and it didn’t take long for the dictatorship to sense a threat: Veloso and his co-conspirator, Gilberto Gil, were both thrown in prison without charges by year’s end, and then forced into exile for the next four years. The song wasn’t silenced, but it was displaced. But Veloso—who reportedly has always found this album uneven—can’t repress its magnetic pull: it remains as thrilling and revolutionary now as it ever was.
- 2021
- 2012
- 2009
- 2006
- 2004
- 2021
- 2021
- 2019
Artist Playlists
- From artistic revolutionary to beloved elder statesman.
- The epitome of classic Brazilian cool.
- A poetic bossa-nova acolyte embodying '60s pop experimentalism.
- The songwriter's light touch has influenced performers far beyond Brazil.
- This iconic Brazilian singer is the author of countless classic songs.
- 2024
- 2024
- 2021
- 2014
- 2007
- 2005
- 2000
Appears On
- Mundo Bita
- Letieres Leite & Orkestra Rumpilezz
- Mundo Bita
- Daniela Mercury
About Caetano Veloso
Caetano Veloso is the shape-shifting spirit of Brazilian popular music, a singer-songwriter who, despite (or perhaps because of) his allergy to convention, has found himself at the centre of Brazilian culture for over half a century. Born Caetano Emanuel Vianna Telles Veloso in Santa Amaro da Purificação in Bahia, Brazil, in 1942, Veloso grew up steeped in the Afro-Brazilian traditions of his home state. But it was his introduction to bossa nova as a teenager that propeled him into the music world, following his sister, the singer Maria Bethânia, to Rio de Janeiro. He made friends with musical co-conspirators Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa, and, buoyed by the global youth culture of the late 1960s, Veloso and Gil birthed tropicalismo, the playful, experimental psychedelic rock that seduced Brazilians while simultaneously threatening the country’s military dictatorship—which led to Veloso’s arrest and ultimate exile. Living in London, Veloso struggled with depression, but it couldn’t dampen his restless creativity. Through that exile and his return, Veloso has always created: The precise delicacy of his singing and songwriting has remained constant, even as he’s experimented with genres from traditional folk to post-punk, following his muse with little regard to fads—shaping fashion rather than being ruled by it. Influential fans like David Byrne and Beck helped raise his profile internationally, and as a new generation discovered his work, he continued to release vital music well into the 21st century.
- HOMETOWN
- Santo Amaro, Brazil
- BORN
- 7 August 1942
- GENRE
- MPB