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.

Blue Skies
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

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blue skies
smiling at me
nothing but blue skies
do i see
bluebirds
snging a song
nothing but bluebirds
all day long

never saw the sun shining so bright
never saw things going so right
noticing the days hurryng by
when you're in love, my, how the fly
blue days
all of them gone

nothing but blue skies
from now on

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Caetano Veloso's song Blue Skies is about the feeling of being in love and how it can change one's outlook on life. The singer observes the seemingly perfect weather with blue skies and bluebirds singing all day long. They express how they have not seen the sun shine so bright before, and how things seem to be going so right. The days seem to rush by because they are so absorbed in their love for another person. This feeling has eradicated any previous feelings of sadness or negative thoughts, the blue days are now all gone. The singer ends the song with the realization that nothing but blue skies will remain from now on, as their love brings a sense of constant positivity to their life.

Line by Line Meaning

blue skies
An optimistic view of the future.

smiling at me
The future looks bright and promising.

nothing but blue skies
No obstacles or challenges lie ahead.

do I see
The future is clear and certain.

bluebirds
A symbol of happiness and joy.

singing a song
Celebrating the present moment.

all day long
A continuous state of happiness and contentment.

never saw the sun shining so bright
The future has never looked better.

never saw things going so right
Everything seems to be falling into place.

noticing the days hurrying by
Time seems to be passing quickly in the midst of happiness.

when you're in love, my, how they fly
Love has a way of making time seem to pass quickly.