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 Cor Amarela
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Uma menina preta
De biquíni amarelo
Na frente da onda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara

Que bunda
Que bunda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

É o melhor que podia acontecer
A cor amarela
Destacar-se entre o mar e o marrom
Da pele de Isabela
O sol já têm muito o que fazer
Na minha vida
Querida
Quem é você?

Uma menina preta
De biquíni amarelo
Na frente da onda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

É o melhor que podia acontecer
A cor amarela
Destacar-se entre o mar e o marrom
Da pele de Isabela
O sol já têm muito o que fazer
Na minha vida
Querida
Quem é você?

Uma menina preta
De biquíni amarelo
Na frente da onda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

É o melhor que podia acontecer
A cor amarela
Destacar-se entre o mar e o marrom
Da pele de Isabela
O sol já têm muito o que fazer
Na minha vida
Querida
Quem é você?

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara
Que bunda
Que bunda

Que onda
Que onda
Que onda
Que cara

Que bunda
Que bunda

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Caetano Veloso's "A Cor Amarela" describe a scene of a beautiful black girl wearing a yellow bikini standing in the face of the waves. The repeated verses emphasize the powerful image of this girl, with the phrase "que onda" meaning "what a wave" (or what an energy). The lyrics also mention the girl's attractive facial features and "bunda" (which could be translated as "butt"), indicating her physical beauty in a straightforward way. The lyrics then suggest that the contrast of the girl's yellow bikini against her brown skin and the ocean's colors make for a stunning scene, with the sun already having much to take care of ("na minha vida" which can be interpreted as "in my life" but is also translated as "in the life of the sun," given the context) and the singer questioning who this girl in front of the ocean might be.

Overall, the lyrics of "A Cor Amarela" describe the innate beauty and power of the natural world, particularly the visual beauty of a black girl in a yellow bikini against the ocean's colors. The lyrics are simple, but the repetition emphasizes the strength of the image, suggesting that such beauty and energy are awe-inspiring and impossible to ignore.

Line by Line Meaning

Uma menina preta
A young black girl

De biquíni amarelo
Wearing a yellow bikini

Na frente da onda
In front of the wave

Que onda
What a wave

Que cara
What a face

Que bunda
What a behind

Que onda
What a wave

Que cara
What a face

Que bunda
What a behind

É o melhor que podia acontecer
It's the best thing that could happen

A cor amarela
The color yellow