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.

Carolina
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

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Carolina
Nos seus olhos fundos
Guarda tanta dor
A dor de todo esse mundo
Eu já lhe expliquei que não vai dar
Seu pranto não vai nada mudar
Eu já convidei para dançar
É hora, já sei, de aproveitar

Lá fora, amor
Uma rosa nasceu
Todo mundo sambou
Uma estrela caiu
Eu bem que mostrei sorrindo
Pela janela, ói que lindo
Mas Carolina não viu

Carolina
Nos seus olhos tristes
Guarda tanto amor
O amor que já não existe
Eu bem que avisei, vai acabar
De tudo lhe dei para aceitar
Mil versos cantei pra lhe agradar
Agora não sei como explicar
Lá fora, amor
Uma rosa morreu
Uma festa acabou
Nosso barco partiu
Eu bem que mostrei a ela

O tempo passou na janela
Só Carolina não viu

Overall Meaning

"Carolina" is a song by Caetano Veloso, a Brazilian musician and songwriter, known for his contributions to the tropicália movement. The song is a melancholic ballad about a woman named Carolina, and the pain and love she carries within her. The lyrics describe the world's pain that Carolina seems to hold in her deep and sad eyes, as well as the love that no longer exists within her. The singer of the song tries to show Carolina that dancing and enjoying life is the only way to deal with her sorrow since crying won't change anything. In the end, the song implies that Carolina didn't take the advice, which resulted in her not realizing that life has moved on, and things have changed for the worse in her world.

Overall, "Carolina" is a poignant and introspective song. Its lyrics are powerful and explore themes of pain, love, and resilience. Caetano Veloso's delivery of the lyrics is poignant and emotive, emphasizing the depth of the song's meaning.

Line by Line Meaning

Carolina
Addressing the person known as Carolina

Nos seus olhos fundos
In your deep eyes

Guarda tanta dor
Carries so much pain

A dor de todo esse mundo
The pain of the whole world

Eu já lhe expliquei que não vai dar
I've already explained to you that it won't work out

Seu pranto não vai nada mudar
Your tears won't change anything

Eu já convidei para dançar
I already invited you to dance

É hora, já sei, de aproveitar
It's time to seize the moment, I already know that

Lá fora, amor
Outside, my love

Uma rosa nasceu
A rose was born

Todo mundo sambou
Everybody danced samba