Caetano Veloso

Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso was born on August 7, 1942 in Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia, Brazil, into a family of seven children. Influenced by artists such as João Gilberto and Dorival Caymmi, he began his musical career in bossa nova, later collaborating with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, Chico Buarque and Os Mutantes, mixing Brazilian pop with rock'n'roll and avant-garde music, giving birth to tropicalism. Opening in 1967 with Domingo and Alegria, Alegria, released by Philips, his discography enjoyed its first success with Caetano Veloso in 1968, a crucial year for the artist since he also took part in the collaborative album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circenses, featuring Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes and Gal Costa, among others, and which was to become a classic. But his psychedelic style and Caetano Veloso's strongly left-wing political stance attracted the attention of the Brazilian military junta. The junta resorted to censorship, going so far as to detain him for several months, forcing him into exile in London until 1972. His eclectic discography was gradually enriched, with many highlights including Transa (1972), Joia (1975), Cinema Transcendental (1979) and Velô (1984), which included the track "O Quereres". However, it was not until 2004 that Caetano Veloso released his first English-language album, A Foreign Sound, before returning to a more rock sound in 2006 with Cê. The albums Zii E Zie and Abraçaço followed in 2009 and 2012. At the age of 75, Caetano Veloso embarked on an international tour in 2017 to promote the album Ofertório, with a band made up of his three sons. Following this tour, Caetano Veloso extended the momentum ofOfertório with the live album Ofertório (Ao Vivo) (2018), then refocused on more autobiographical work with Narciso em Férias (2020), a film and book about his arrest under the dictatorship. He then returned to an album of previously unreleased material with Meu Coco (2021), which opened a new stage cycle, before marking 2025 with a major reunion with Maria Bethânia, documented on record with Caetano e Bethânia Ao Vivo (2025).