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.

Lua de São Jorge
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Lua de São Jorge, lua deslumbrante
Azul verdejante, cauda de pavão
Lua de São Jorge, cheia, branca e inteira
Oh, minha bandeira solta na amplidão

Lua de São Jorge Lua brasileira
Lua do meu coração

Lua de São Jorge, lua maravilha
Mãe, irmã e filha de todo esplendor
Lua de São Jorge, brilha nos altares
Brilha nos lugares onde estou e vou
Lua de São Jorge, brilha sobre os mares
Brilha sobre o meu amor

Lua de São Jorge, lua soberana
Nobre porcelana sobre a seda azul
Lua de São Jorge, lua da alegria
Não se vê um dia claro como tu
Lua de São Jorge, serás minha guia
No Brasil de Norte a Sul

Lua de São Jorge, lua deslumbrante
Azul verdejante, cauda de pavão
Lua de São Jorge, cheia, branca e inteira
Oh, minha bandeira solta na amplidão
Lua de São Jorge, lua brasileira
Lua do meu coração!

Lua de São Jorge, lua maravilha
Mãe, irmã e filha de todo esplendor
Lua de São Jorge, brilha nos altares
Brilha nos lugares onde estou e vou
Lua de São Jorge, brilha sobre os mares
Brilha sobre o meu amor

Lua de São Jorge, lua soberana
Nobre porcelana sobre a seda azul
Lua de São Jorge, lua da alegria
Não se vê um dia claro como tu

Lua de São Jorge, serás minha guia
No Brasil de Norte a Sul

Overall Meaning

The song “Lua de São Jorge” by Caetano Veloso is an ode to the moon. The lyrics describe the moon as “dazzling” and “full of splendor” and use Saint George's name in the title to evoke mysticism and a sense of grandeur. The moon is described as a Brazilian moon, the moon of the heart, and a wonder, a mother, a sister and a daughter. The moon is also associated with freedom and vastness as the singer describes it as his flag, free in the expanse.

The song has a strong sense of the moon being a guiding force for the singer - “You will be my guide in Brazil from North to South”. The moon is associated with happiness and also hints at how the singer might be going through a dark period of his life where he longs to be guided by the bright moon. The moon is also related to love and it's used to evoke the image of the singer's love being illuminated by the moon. The lyrics use vivid and poetic imagery to paint a beautiful and mystical picture of the moon, casting it as charmed and inevitable.

Line by Line Meaning

Lua de São Jorge
The moon that symbolizes the Brazilian saint, St. George.

Lua deslumbrante
Dazzling moon.

Azul verdejante
Shimmering blue.

Calda de pavão
Peacock's tail.

Cheia, branca, inteira
Full, white, and complete.

Ó minha bandeira
Oh my flag.

Solta na amplidão
Flying freely in the vastness.

Lua brasileira
Brazilian moon.

Lua do meu coração
Moon of my heart.

Mãe, irmã e filha
Mother, sister, and daughter.

De todo esplendor
Of all splendor.