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.

Bem Devagar
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Sem correr
Bem devagar
A felicidade voltou para mim
Sem perceber
Sem suspeitar
O meu coração deixou você surgir
E como o despertar depois de um sonho mau
Eu vi o amor sorrindo em seu olhar

E a beleza da ternura de sentir você
Chegou sem correr
Bem devagar
Amor velho que se perde
Sai correndo para outro ninho

Amor novo que se ganha
Vem sem pressa, vem mansinho

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Caetano Veloso's song "Bem devagar" are a testament to the beauty of love and how it tends to creep up on us. The song speaks of the happiness and contentment that comes with finding someone you love and the peacefulness that accompanies it. The opening line of the song, "Sem correr, bem devagar" translates to "Without rushing, very slowly," which sets the tone for the rest of the song.

Veloso sings about how his heart allowed someone to enter his life without him even realizing or suspecting it, only for him to later realize that the person brought him happiness. He compares this feeling to waking up from a bad dream and seeing love smiling in the person's eyes. The beauty of being tender and feeling someone else's presence in one's life is further emphasized in the lyric, "E a beleza da ternura de sentir você."

The lyrics also contrast the old and new love. The old love that is lost tends to rush and leave quickly in search of a new home. However, the new love that is gained comes slowly and gently. The last line of the song, "Vem sem pressa, vem mansinho," which translates to "Comes without haste, comes gently," hints at how true love takes its time to reveal itself, but it is worth waiting for.

Line by Line Meaning

Sem correr
Without hurrying

Bem devagar
Very slowly

A felicidade voltou para mim
Happiness has returned to me

Sem perceber
Unknowingly

Sem suspeitar
Without suspecting

O meu coração deixou você surgir
My heart let you appear

E como o despertar depois de um sonho mau
And like the awakening after a bad dream

Eu vi o amor sorrindo em seu olhar
I saw love smiling in your gaze

E a beleza da ternura de sentir você
And the beauty of tenderness to feel you

Chegou sem correr
It arrived without hurrying

Bem devagar
Very slowly