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.

Gema
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Brilhante, ê
De noite dentro da mata
Na escuridão, luz exata
Vejo você

Divina, ê
Diamantina presença
Na solidão de quem pensa só em você

Esquecer, não
Revelação

Deixa eu ver
Pedra, clarão da floresta
Gema do olho da festa
Deixa eu saber

Meu amor
Dona da minha cabeça
Não, nunca desapareça
Do seu amor

Esquecer, não
Me perder, não

Estrela, ê
Na taça negra da selva
Gota de luz sobre a relva
Meu bem querer

Lua, sol, ê
Centro do meu pensamento
Meu canto dentro do vento
Busca você

Esquecer, não
Esconder, não

Brilhante, ê

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Caetano Veloso's song "Gema" are an expression of the singer's profound admiration and love for a woman. The opening lines of the song set the scene in a forest at night, where the singer sees a shining light that turns out to be the woman he loves. He describes her presence as divine and compares her to a diamond that stands out in the darkness. The singer's desire to know more about her and his fear of losing her are evident throughout the lyrics.

The chorus of the song expresses the singer's reluctance to forget about the woman or to let her slip away from him. He sees her as the center of his world and his main source of inspiration. The second verse mentions a black cup in the jungle where a drop of light falls on the grass, which could be interpreted as a metaphor for the woman's influence on the singer's life.

Overall, the lyrics of "Gema" convey a sense of reverence and awe towards a woman who appears to be larger than life and who has a significant impact on the singer's emotional state and creative output.

Line by Line Meaning

Brilhante, ê
Bright, oh

De noite dentro da mata
At night in the jungle

Na escuridão, luz exata
In darkness, the exact light

Vejo você
I see you

Divina, ê
Divine, oh

Diamantina presença
Diamantine presence

Na solidão de quem pensa só em você
In the solitude of those who think only of you

Esquecer, não
Forget, no

Revelação
Revelation

Deixa eu ver
Let me see

Pedra, clarão da floresta
Stone, forest's bright light

Gema do olho da festa
Gem of the party's eye

Deixa eu saber
Let me know

Meu amor
My love

Dona da minha cabeça
Owner of my head

Não, nunca desapareça
No, never disappear

Do seu amor
From your love

Me perder, não
Lose myself, no

Estrela, ê
Star, oh

Na taça negra da selva
In the black cup of the jungle

Gota de luz sobre a relva
Drop of light on the grass

Meu bem querer
My love

Lua, sol, ê
Moon, sun, oh

Centro do meu pensamento
Center of my thoughts

Meu canto dentro do vento
My song inside the wind

Busca você
Searches for you

Esconder, não
Hide, no

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Caetano Emmanuel Viana Teles Veloso

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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