Singer, composer, writer, playwright, Chico Buarque is one of the main Brazilian artists. Furthermore, he is an intellectual personality and active in politics. Considered one of the biggest names in Brazilian Popular Music (MPB), he composed numerous important songs, many of them with criticism and social complaints.
His career as a writer is on the rise, as, in May 2019, Chico Buarque won the Camões Award, one of the greatest recognitions of the Literature in Portuguese language.
Life
Francisco Buarque de Holland was born on June 19, 1944, in Rio de Janeiro. His father, Sérgio, was a sociologist, and his mother, Maria Amélia Cesário Alvim, a pianist. The musician is the fourth of seven brothers. When the artist was two years old, his family moved to Sao Paulo. His father, who was also a historian, was appointed director of the Ipiranga Museum – at the time the oldest public space in the city.
At the age of five, Buarque began to show interest in music. At that age, he started making cutouts with photos of radio singers. In 1953, Chico's family moved to the
Italy, because the father was invited to teach History at the University of Rome. The family house was a meeting point for artists and intellectuals, such as the poet Vinicius de Moraes.In his pre-adolescence, the musician composed some songs in the operetta style, which were performed by his sisters Maria do Carmo, Ana Maria, Cristina and Miúcha.
As a teenager, Chico enjoyed reading classics from French, German and Russian literature. During this period, he participated in a religious movement called “Ultramontanos”. Afterwards, he was part of another group called “Organization Fraternal Aid”.
It is speculated that the first time a photo of Chico Buarque appeared in a newspaper was in 1961. The headline highlighted: "Pivetes Stole A Car: Arrested." At the time, the musician and a friend had “pulled” a car to go around at dawn. With that, they were arrested. Chico was forbidden to go out at night alone until he turned 18 years old.
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→ Chico Buarque in the dictatorship
The musician attended three years of Architecture and urbanism at the University of São Paulo (USP). He dropped out of the course in 1964, when the climate of repression invaded universities after the Military coup, that took place in the same year. In interviews, Chico said that having studied Architecture was fundamental to sharpen his sensibility and see the city from a different perspective. All this contributed with his compositions.
Chico Buarque is one of the artists who were persecuted during the Dictatorship Military. He was even removed from his home and taken to the Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS). In 1969, Chico Buarque participated in the “Passeata dos one hundred thousand” in Rio de Janeiro. The event was attended by thousands of students, artists and intellectuals who were against that regime, such as Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, precursors of the Tropicalism.
He self-exiled in Rome, Italy, where he remained until March 1970, when he decided to return to Brazil at the invitation of a record company to produce a new album.
Know more: Understand how the Military Dictatorship in Brazil was
In order to be able to compose his songs and not be censored, in 1974, Chico Buarque created the pseudonym Julinho da Adelaide, with whom he composed the songs “Brazilian Miracle”, “Acorda amor” and “Jorge wonderful". Due to these and other situations, the artist ended up causing a revolution through his songs. Chico Buarque is considered one of the greatest composers of brazilian protest songs.
See too: Music and entrance exam
Constructions
As a young man, Chico Buarque liked international music. Everything changed when he heard the album "Chega de Saudade" (1959), by Joao Gilberto. According to what he recounted in an interview, “then I had the feeling that I wanted to make MPB”.
When he was a university student, Chico used to get together with his classmates to make marches and play the guitar. His first composition was “song of the eyes”, in 1959, when he was 15 years old. “march to the sun”, from 1964, was the first song by Buarque to be recorded.
It was performed by Maricenne Costa, but the artist said that the song “There's more samba”, From the same year, was his initial milestone as a songwriter and singer. Chico's first vinyl single was in 1965 and it's called “Pedro Pedreiro and the dream of carnival”.
Chico Buarque said that, when he was young, his dream was to sing like João Gilberto, make music like Tom Jobim and write lyrics like Vinícius de Moraes.
Chico Buarque participated in several festivals. In 1966, his song “The band”, performed by Nara Leão, came first, along with the song “shot”, in II Brazilian Popular Music Festival, promoted by TV Record.
Tom Jobim was one of Chico Buarque's great musical partners**
In 1968, Chico Buarque and Tom Jobim won the 3rd International Song Festival with the music "You knew”. However, they were booed by the audience, who wanted the song “Not to say I spoke of flowers” from Geraldo Vandré, won.
→ Compositions
In his own words, Chico Buarque does not purposefully give political content to his songs. He commented, in an interview, that he abuses more creativity in his compositions. One of the most striking characteristics of Chico Buarque's compositions are the Brazilian social, economic and cultural criticisms and denunciations.
Chico dominates the Portuguese language with primacy. He prefers to use the metaphor. This is clear in songs like “in spite of you" and "Cup”, which contain veiled criticisms of the military dictatorship in Brazil and which were even censored.
→ Check out the main songs by Chico Buarque:
"Who has seen you, who has seen you" (1967)
"Night of the Masked" (1967)
"Everyday" (1971)
"Despite You" (1970)
"Construction" (1971)
"What will it be (on the surface)" (1976)
"Eyes to Eyes" (1976)
"John and Mary" (1977)
"Piece of me" (1978)
"Goblet" (1978)
"Geni and the Zeppelin" (1978)
"I love you" (1980)
Literature
As a teenager, Chico Buarque started as a writer. He published his first chronicles in "Verbâmidas", a newspaper at Colégio Santa Cruz. Later, he collaborated with some newspapers, such as "Estado de São Paulo" and the satirical newspaper "O Pasquim", one of the pioneers of the journalism Brazilian.
In 1967, Chico also came to act as an actor in the film “Girl from Ipanema”. The following year, he kicked off dramaturgy by writing the play Live Wheel. His then wife, Marieta Severo, played one of the main roles.
See the main books by Chico Buarque:
"Halt" (1991)
"Benjamin" (1995)
"Budapest" (2003)
"Spilled Milk" (2009)
*Image credit: A.PAES | Shutterstock.com
**Image credit: National Archives | Wikimedia Commons
By Silvia Tancredi
Journalist