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.

Kalú
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

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Kalú, Kalú
Tire o verde desses óio de riba d'eu
Kalú, Kalú
Não me tente, se você já me esqueceu
Kalú, Kalú
Esse oiá, depois do que assucedeu
Cum franqueza, só n'um tendo coração
Fazê tal judiação

Você tá mangando d'eu

Cum franqueza
Só n'um tendo coração
Fazê tal judiação
Você tá mangando d'eu

Kalú, Kalú
Tire o verde desses óio de riba d'eu
Kalú, Kalú
Não me tente, se você já me esqueceu
Kalú, Kalú
Esse oiá, depois do que assucedeu
Cum franqueza, só n'um tendo coração
Fazê tal judiação
Você tá mangando d'eu

Cum franqueza
Só n'um tendo coração

Fazê tal judiação
Você tá mangando d'eu

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Caetano Veloso's song "Kalú" are sung in Portuguese, and they express a sense of heartbreak and betrayal. The singer of the song implores Kalú to stop mocking him and to remove the green from her eyes. He tells her that he can see through her attempts to rekindle their relationship, as she has forgotten about him. The lyrics speak of the pain and confusion that come with realizing that someone you love no longer reciprocates your feelings.

The repetition of "Kalú, Kalú" throughout the song serves as a plea to the person referred to as Kalú to listen to the singer's feelings. The line "Cum franqueza, só n'um tendo coração/Fazê tal judiação/Você tá mangando d'eu" roughly translates to "With honesty, you're not being kind with your heartless games/You're just making fun of me." This line shows the frustration and helplessness the singer feels in this situation, as he believes that Kalú is toying with his emotions.

Overall, "Kalú" is a melancholy song that poetically captures the pain of feeling unloved by someone you care for deeply. It is a testament to the power of music to convey complex emotions and experiences in a way that resonates with listeners.

Line by Line Meaning

Kalú, Kalú
Addressing someone named Kalú, twice for emphasis

Tire o verde desses óio de riba d'eu
Remove the jealousy in your eyes towards me

Kalú, Kalú
Addressing someone named Kalú, twice for emphasis

Não me tente, se você já me esqueceu
Don't provoke me if you have already forgotten me

Kalú, Kalú
Addressing someone named Kalú, twice for emphasis

Esse oiá, depois do que assucedeu
That look, after everything that happened

Cum franqueza, só n'um tendo coração
Honestly, only someone with no heart would do such cruelty

Fazê tal judiação
Commit such injustice

Você tá mangando d'eu
You are making fun of me

Cum franqueza
Honestly

Só n'um tendo coração
Only someone without a heart