At the age of seven, Bebel made an appearance on her mother's first solo album Miúcha. At age nine, Bebel performed with her mother and jazz saxophonist Stan Getz at a jazz festival in New York's Carnegie Hall. Back in Brazil, Bebel performed and recorded for the soundtrack of the children's musical Os Saltimbancos, written by Sergio Bardotti and Chico Buarque. Later on Bebel joined an experimental theatrical group and was a member of the founding team of the performance space Circo Voador (Flying Circus) at Ipanema Beach. In this group she met singer/songwriter Cazuza, who became a close friend and soon a major rock star in Brazil during the 1980s.
Throughout the 1990s, Bebel collaborated with a variety of musical stars such as Arto Lindsay, Thievery Corporation, David Byrne, Towa Tei, Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque. In 1996 Bebel was featured in the AIDS charity project Red Hot + Rio, produced by her close friend and collaborator Béco Dranoff. By the mid 1990s, Bebel also had successes as songwriter with the international dance hits "Technova" and "Batucada" in collaboration with producers Towa Tei and Arto Lindsay.
Bebel was featured on the soundtrack of Brad Anderson's film Next Stop Wonderland with Vinicius Cantuária and Mauro Refosco. In the late 1990s, Bebel moved to London where she began to develop the sound featured on her critically acclaimed debut album Tanto Tempo. During this period, she met Suba, the multi-talented Serbian producer living in São Paulo who ended up writing and producing several tracks on Tanto Tempo. While in London, she also worked with DJ/producer Amon Tobin, Dutch duo Arling & Cameron and singer Nina Miranda.
In 2000, Bebel's Tanto Tempo album was released on Ziriguiboom (Crammed Discs sub-label) and has sold over one million copies worldwide. The album was also nominated for two Latin Grammy Awards. Her second album, Bebel Gilberto (2004), was also released to great critical acclaim, receiving a MOBO Award in the UK and also a World Music Grammy nomination.
Also in 2006, Bebel started writing and producing the songs that would become part of her third album Momento, released in April 2007. On this album, Bebel collaborated with UK producer Guy Sigsworth, her friends Didi Gutman and Sabina Sciubba (from NY based band Brazilian Girls) and the Rio based Orquestra Imperial.
Gilberto's most recent album, All In One, was released in the US in September 2009 by jazz imprint Verve.
Chica Chica Boom Chic
Bebel Gilberto Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Chica chica boom...
Chica chica boom...
Meu coração faz chica chica boom chic
Com emoção o chica chica boom chic
O meu ganzá faz chica chica boom chic?
(Chic chic chic)
Uh...
Rsrsrsrsrs
É brasileiro
O chica chica boom chic
Com um pandeiro fazendo
O chica chica boom chic
E vem a saudade da Bahia?
Onde a gente tem, canjerê também?
Numa batucada?
Chic chic boom
Chic chic chic boom boom
Chic chic boom
Chic chic chic boom boom boom
Chica chica boom
Chica chica boom
Boom boom boom
You don't make sense
The chica chica boom boom boom
É brasileiro
O chica chica boom chic
Com um pandeiro fazendo
O chica chica boom chic
Meu coração faz
Chica chica boom chic
Com emoção faz
Chica chica boom chic
E vem a saudade da Bahia?
Onde a gente tem
Canjerê também
Numa batucada
Chic
Chica chica boom
Chica chica boom
Chica chica boom
Chica chica boom
É brasileiro
O chica chica boom boom boom
(Chic chic chic)
Com o pandeiro fazendo
Chica chica boom chic
E o meu ganzá faz
Chica chica boom chic
Prá eu cantar
O chica chica boom boom boom
Com a canção
Do chica chica boom boom boom
The lyrics to Bebel Gilberto's song "Chica Chica Boom Chic" contain a mixture of Portuguese and English, and are an expression of Brazilian culture and music. The repeated phrase "chica chica boom" is an onomatopoeic representation of the rhythmic beat of the music. The first verse proclaims that the singer's heart beats in the rhythm of "chica chica boom chic" with emotion, accompanied by the sound of a "ganzá", a traditional Brazilian percussion instrument. The chorus refers to the nostalgic longing for the Bahia region of Brazil, where the "canjerê", a type of Afro-Brazilian percussion music, is played in a "batucada". The song blends different genres of Brazilian music, including samba, bossa nova, and percussion-driven rhythms.
The song was composed by Ary Barroso, a Brazilian composer and pianist, and originally recorded in 1941. It was later covered by artists such as Carmen Miranda and Sergio Mendes, among others. Bebel Gilberto's version was released in 2000 as part of her album "Tanto Tempo". The song became one of the most popular tracks on the album, gaining international recognition and praise.
Line by Line Meaning
Chica chica boom...
Repetition of the phrase for emphasis
Meu coração faz chica chica boom chic
My heart beats with excitement
Com emoção o chica chica boom chic
With so much emotion in the beats
O meu ganzá faz chica chica boom chic? (Chic chic chic)
Can my shaker make the same kind of beats?
Uma canção chica chica boom chic
A song that's full of energy
Uh... Rsrsrsrsrs
Sound of laughter
É brasileiro
It's Brazilian
Com um pandeiro fazendo
With a tambourine playing
O chica chica boom chic
The beats that make you dance
E vem a saudade da Bahia?
Does the nostalgia for Bahia come?
Onde a gente tem, canjerê também?
Where we have canjerê as well?
Numa batucada?
In a drum circle?
Chic chic boom
Funky beats
Chic chic chic boom boom
More funky beats
Chic chic boom
Even more funky beats
Chic chic chic boom boom boom
The funkiest beats!
Chica chica boom
Still more funky beats
Chica chica boom
Can't get enough of those beats
Boom boom boom
Lots of funky beats
You don't make sense
An expression of confusion
É brasileiro
It's Brazilian
Com um pandeiro fazendo
With a tambourine playing
O chica chica boom chic
The beats that make you dance
Meu coração faz
My heart beats to
Chica chica boom chic
The beats that make you dance
Com emoção faz
With so much emotion
Chica chica boom chic
The beats that make you dance
E vem a saudade da Bahia?
Does the nostalgia for Bahia come?
Onde a gente tem
Where we have
Canjerê também
Canjerê as well?
Numa batucada
In a drum circle
Chic
Funky beats
Chica chica boom
The beats that make you dance
Chica chica boom
The beats that make you dance
Chica chica boom
The beats that make you dance
Chica chica boom
The beats that make you dance
É brasileiro
It's Brazilian
O chica chica boom boom boom (Chic chic chic)
The most funkiest beats ever
Com o pandeiro fazendo
With a tambourine playing
Chica chica boom chic
The beats that make you dance
E o meu ganzá faz
And my shaker makes
Chica chica boom chic
The beats that make you dance
Prá eu cantar
So I can sing
O chica chica boom boom boom
The most funkiest beats ever
Com a canção
To the tune of
Do chica chica boom boom boom
The most funkiest beats ever
Contributed by Audrey T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.