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.

Gayana
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

O amor que vive em mim
Vou agora revelar
Este amor que não tem fim
Já não posso em mim guardar

Eu amo muito você
Eu amo muito você
Eu não vou mais me calar

Eu não vou mais esconder
Este segredo guardado
Bem lá no fundo do peito

Eu amo muito você
Eu amo muito você
Não adianta fugir
Não adianta fingir
Já me cansei de sofrer
Por não poder lhe dizer

Eu amo muito você
Eu amo muito você
Nem me interessa saber
Se alguém vai condenar
O meu amor é maior
Do que a Terra e o mar
Maior que o céu e as estrelas
Maior que tudo que há

E se um dia eu me for
Para onde Deus me levar
Mesmo assim, meu amor
Com você vai ficar

O amor que vive em mim
Vou agora revelar
Este amor que não tem fim
Já não posso em mim guardar

Eu amo muito você
Eu amo muito você
Eu não vou mais me calar
Eu não vou mais esconder
Este segredo guardado
Bem lá no fundo do peito

Eu amo muito você
Eu amo muito você
Não adianta fugir
Não adianta fingir
Já me cansei de sofrer
Por não poder lhe dizer

Eu amo muito você
Eu amo muito você
Nem me interessa saber
Se alguém vai condenar
O meu amor é maior
Do que a Terra e o mar
Maior que o céu e as estrelas
Maior que tudo que há

E se um dia eu me for
Para onde Deus me levar

Mesmo assim, meu amor
Com você vai ficar

Overall Meaning

The song "Gayana" by Caetano Veloso is a love letter to a secret lover that the singer has been keeping hidden within himself. The lyrics express the urgency to finally reveal this love and the desire to break free from the shackles of secrecy. The singer repeatedly states "Eu amo muito você" (I love you very much) with a sense of desperation, as if he can no longer contain his feelings. Despite the potential consequences of revealing this love, the singer expresses that his love is greater than any judgment or societal norms, making it a pure and honest love that cannot be denied.

Throughout the song, there is an underlying tension between holding onto the love secretly and the desire to outwardly express it. The line "Não adianta fugir/ Não adianta fingir" (It's no use running away/ It's no use pretending) represents this tension, as the singer acknowledges that hiding the love is no longer an option. The final stanza of the song brings a sense of closure and a message of eternal love. The singer expresses that even if he were to die, his love would continue to exist and live on with the recipient of the letter.

Overall, "Gayana" is a heartfelt and beautifully written song that portrays the inner struggles of love, secrecy, and the desire to be free and open about one's feelings.

Line by Line Meaning

O amor que vive em mim
I am about to reveal the love that lives inside me

Vou agora revelar
I am going to reveal it now

Este amor que não tem fim
This love has no end

Já não posso em mim guardar
I can no longer keep it inside me

Eu amo muito você
I love you very much

Eu não vou mais me calar
I will no longer keep quiet

Eu não vou mais esconder
I will not hide it anymore

Este segredo guardado
This secret that I have kept

Bem lá no fundo do peito
Deep inside my heart

Não adianta fugir
It is no use running away

Não adianta fingir
It is no use pretending