Caetano Emanoel Viana Teles Veloso (born August 7, 1942 in Santo Amaro, Bah… Read Full Bio ↴Caetano Emanoel Viana Teles Veloso (born August 7, 1942 in Santo Amaro, Bahia, Brazil), professionally known as Caetano Veloso, is a singer, composer, musician, producer, arranger, writer and political activist, being one of the most popular and influential Brazilian MPB artists of all time. With a career that exceeds five decades, Caetano has built a musical work marked by renewal and widely considered to possess great intellectual and poetic value.

Veloso is the fifth of the seven children born to José Telles Veloso ("Seu Zezinho") and Claudionor Vianna Telles Veloso ("Dona Canô"). His younger sister Maria Bethânia, another popular and renowned artist in Brazil, preceded him to fame as a singer in the mid-1960s. He began his career around 1965 singing bossa nova and he has cited his greatest musical influences from his early period as João Gilberto and Dorival Caymmi. (João Gilberto would say later about Caetano's contribution that it added an intellectual dimension to brazilian popular music.) But with such musical collaborators Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, Chico Buarque, and Os Mutantes, and greatly influenced by the later work of The Beatles, developed tropicalismo, which fused Brazilian pop with rock and roll and avant garde art music resulting in a more international, psychedelic, and socially aware sound. Veloso's politically active stance, unapologetically leftist, earned him the enmity of Brazil's military dictatorship which ruled until 1985; his songs were frequently censored, and some were banned. Veloso was also alienated from the socialist left in Brazil becasue of his acceptance and integration of non-nationalist influences (like rock and roll) in his music. Veloso and Gilberto Gil spent several months in jail for "anti-government activity" in 1968 and eventually exiled themselves to London. Caetano Veloso's work upon his return in 1972 was often characterized by frequent appropriations not only of international styles, but of half-forgotten Brazilian folkloric styles and rhythms as well. In particular, his celebration of the Afro-Brazilian culture of Bahia can be seen as the precursor of such Afro-centric groups as Timbalada.

In the 1980s, Veloso's popularity outside Brazil grew, especially in Israel, Portugal, France and Africa. By 2004, he was one of the most respected and prolific international pop stars, with more than fifty recordings available, including songs in soundtracks of movies such as Pedro Almodovar's Hable con Ella (Talk to Her), and Frida. In 2002 Veloso published an account of his early years and the Tropicalia movement, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil.

His first all-English CD was A Foreign Sound (2004), which covers Nirvana's "Come as You Are" and compositions from the Great American Songbook. Five of the six songs on his third eponymous album, released in 1971, were also in English.

A Base de Guantánamo
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

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O fato dos americanos
Desrespeitarem
Os direitos humanos
Em solo cubano
É por demais forte
Simbolicamente
Para eu não me abalar

Refrão (3x):
A base de Guantánamo
A base
Da baía de Guantánamo
A base de Guantánamo
Guantánamo

(Repete letra 3x)

(Repete refrão 6x)

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Caetano Veloso's song "A Base de Guantánamo" are a commentary on the controversial United States military prison located on Cuban soil. The first verse speaks to the fact that Americans are violating human rights on Cuban soil, and the singer acknowledges that this is a deeply symbolic and meaningful issue for him. The repetition of the refrain "A base de Guantánamo" underscores the importance of this issue and draws attention to the fact that the prison itself is a symbol of the way in which the United States engages with other countries and cultures.

The use of the phrase "por demais forte" (too strong) highlights the emotional intensity of the issue at hand. The singer is making a clear statement that the human rights violations associated with the prison are unacceptable to him, and he is using his music as a platform to raise awareness and call attention to this issue.

Overall, Veloso's lyrics offer a critique of the US government's use of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and its impact on relations with Cuba and the world at large.

Line by Line Meaning

O fato dos americanos
The fact that the Americans

Desrespeitarem
Disrespect

Os direitos humanos
Human rights

Em solo cubano
On Cuban soil

É por demais forte
Is too strong

Simbolicamente
Symbolically

Para eu não me abalar
For me not to be shaken

Refrão (3x):
Chorus (3x):

A base de Guantánamo
The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

A base
The base

Da baía de Guantánamo
Of Guantanamo Bay