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.

Cry Me A River
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Now you say you're lonely
You cried the whole night through
Well you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you

Now you say you're sorry
For being so untrue
Well you can cry me a river, cry me a river

I cried a river over you

You drove me, nearly drove me out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, I remember all that you said
Told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me

And now you say you love me
Well just to prove you do
Come on and cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you

Go on and cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river............over you

Overall Meaning

The song "Cry Me a River" by Caetano Veloso is a ballad about a love gone wrong, where the singer is addressing their former lover. The opening lines set the tone for the song, with the singer acknowledging the loneliness and pain their former lover is feeling, but remarking that they had already experienced the same emotions. The phrase "cry me a river" is used as a response, indicating that their former lover's tears are meaningless to them now. The prominent theme of tears and crying is used throughout the song as a metaphor for heartbreak and loss.

The second verse features the singer addressing their former lover's apologies for being unfaithful. The singer responds with the same phrase, "cry me a river", indicating that they have already shed enough tears over the situation. The following lines describe the emotional turmoil that the former lover caused, nearly driving the singer out of their mind, while the lover never shed a tear. The repetition of the phrase "I cried a river over you" reinforces the emotional pain that the singer experienced.

In the final verse, the singer acknowledges their former lover's profession of love, but still challenges them to "prove" their feelings by crying a river, like the singer had done for them. The song ends with a repetition of the chorus, "cry me a river", which serves as a powerful final statement of the singer's hurt and anger.

Line by Line Meaning

Now you say you're lonely
You claim to be all alone

You cried the whole night through
You showed how utterly desolate you were by shedding tears all night

Well you can cry me a river, cry me a river
You can weep unabashedly, crying your heart out, to someone who isn't fazed by your pain

I cried a river over you
I was engulfed with sorrow when you deserted me

Now you say you're sorry
You plead guilty

For being so untrue
For betraying me and for your duplicity

You drove me, nearly drove me out of my head
You sent me practically insane

While you never shed a tear
While you didn't seem to care about my heartache

Remember, I remember all that you said
I still recall every word you uttered

Told me love was too plebeian
You claimed that the kind of love I desired was beneath your class

Told me you were through with me
You informed me that our relationship was over