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.

Dindi / Eu Sei Vou Te Amar
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Céu,tão grande é o céu e bandos de nuvens que passam ligeiras

Eu sei que vou te amar
Por toda a minha vida
Eu vou te amar
A cada despedida
Eu vou te amar
Desesperadamente

Eu sei que vou te amar..

E cada verso meu será
Prá te dizer
Que eu sei que vou te amar
Por toda a minha vida...

Eu sei que vou chorar
A cada ausência tua eu vou chorar
Mas cada volta tua há de apagar
O que essa tua ausência me causou...

Eu sei que vou sofrer
A eterna desventura de viver
À espera de viver ao lado teu
Por toda a minha vida...

Eu sei que vou te amar
Por toda a minha vida
Eu vou te amar
A cada despedida
Eu vou te amar
Desesperadamente
Eu sei que vou te amar...

E cada verso meu será
Prá te dizer
Que eu sei que vou te amar
Por toda a minha vida...

Eu sei que vou chorar
A cada ausência tua eu vou chorar
Mas cada volta tua há de apagar
O que essa tua ausência me causou...

Eu sei que vou sofrer
A eterna desventura de viver

À espera de viver ao lado teu
Por toda a minha vida...

Overall Meaning

The song "Dindi / Eu Sei Vou Te Amar" by Caetano Veloso is a beautiful ode to love and devotion. The first verse speaks of the vastness of the sky and the clouds that pass by, setting the stage for the intensity of the feelings that are to follow. The chorus repeats the lines "Eu sei que vou te amar" ("I know I will love you") over and over again, emphasizing the deep conviction and certainty that the singer has about his love. He declares that he will love his beloved "Por toda a minha vida" ("for all my life"), and that he will love her "A cada despedida" ("at every parting").

The song acknowledges the pain and sadness that can come with love as well, as the singer predicts that he will cry "a cada ausência tua" ("at every absence of yours") and suffer "a eterna desventura de viver" ("the eternal misfortune of living") while waiting to be with his beloved. However, he also believes that her return will erase all the sadness that her absence caused, suggesting that the joy and love they share truly outweighs any pain. The final verse repeats the chorus once more, cementing the singer's commitment to his love: "Eu sei que vou te amar por toda a minha vida / Eu vou te amar a cada despedida / Eu vou te amar desesperadamente / Eu sei que vou te amar."

Line by Line Meaning

Céu,tão grande é o céu e bandos de nuvens que passam ligeiras
The sky, vast and expansive, with flocks of clouds passing by quickly

Eu sei que vou te amar
I know that I will love you

Por toda a minha vida
For my entire life

A cada despedida
Every farewell

Desesperadamente
Desperately

E cada verso meu será
And every verse of mine will be

Prá te dizer
To tell you

Que eu sei que vou te amar
That I know I will love you

A cada ausência tua eu vou chorar
Every time you're away, I will cry

Mas cada volta tua há de apagar
But every return of yours will erase

O que essa tua ausência me causou
What your absence has caused me