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.

Base De Guantánamo
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

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

Refrгo (3x):
A base de Guantбnamo
A base
Da baнa de Guantбnamo
A base de Guantбnamo
Guantбnamo

(Repete letra 3x)

(Repete refrгo 6x)

Overall Meaning

In Caetano Veloso's song "Base De Guantánamo", the lyrics touch on the controversial topic of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The opening lines discuss the fact that the Americans are disrespecting human rights on Cuban soil, which is a powerful and symbolic act that cannot be ignored. This sets the tone for the rest of the song, as the singer expresses their outrage and refusal to be affected by the situation.

The refrain focuses on the Guantanamo Bay naval base, which has been a subject of controversy due to the human rights violations that have occurred there. The repetition of the phrase "A base de Guantánamo" emphasizes the power of the location and the atrocities that have taken place there. The use of the shortened version "Guantánamo" in the final line of the refrain hammers home the point that this place has become infamous for the actions that have taken place there.

Overall, the song is a powerful condemnation of the human rights abuses that have occurred at Guantanamo Bay. Veloso uses his platform as a musician to draw attention to these issues and encourage listeners to take action.

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

Й por demais forte
is too strong

Simbolicamente
symbolically

Para eu nгo me abalar
For me not to be shaken

Refrгo (3x):
Chorus (3x):

A base de Guantбnamo
The Guantanamo base

A base
The base

Da baнa de Guantбnamo
In Guantanamo Bay