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.

Na Linha do Equador
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

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Luz das estrelas
Laço do infinito
Gosto tanto dela assim
Rosa amarela
Voz de todo grito
Gosto tanto dela assim
Esse imenso desmedido amor
Vai além de seja o que for

Vai além de onde eu vou
Do que sou minha dor
Minha linha do Equador
Esse imenso desmedido amor
Vai além de seja o que for
Passa mais além do céu de Brasília
Traço do arquiteto
Gosto tanto dela assim
Gosto de filha
Música de preto
Gosto tanto dela assim
Essa desmesura de paixão
É loucura do coração
Minha Foz do Iguaçu
Polo sul, meu azul
Luz do sentimento nu
Esse imenso desmedido amor
Vai além de seja o que for
Vai além de onde eu vou
Do que sou minha dor
Minha linha do Equador
Mas é doce morrer neste mar
De lembrar e nunca esquecer
Se eu tivesse mais alma pra dar
Eu daria, isto pra mim é viver
Céu de Brasília, traço do arquiteto
Gosto tanto dela assim
Gosto de filha, música de preto
Gosto tanto dela assim
Essa desmesura de paixão
É loucura do coração
Minha Foz do Iguaçu, polo Sul
Meu azul, luz do sentimento blue
Esse imenso desmedido amor
Vai além de seja o que for
Vai além de onde eu for, do que sou
Minha dor, minha linha do Equador
Mas é doce morrer neste mar de lembrar
E nunca esquecer

Se eu tivesse mais alma pra dar
Eu daria, isto pra mim é viver

Overall Meaning

Caetano Veloso's song "Na Linha do Equador" features an array of vivid imagery, highlighting the beauty and depth of his feelings for a special someone. The song begins by evoking the infinite expanse of the universe, comparing his love to the light of the stars and the boundlessness of the horizon. Caetano then goes on to describe his beloved with a series of striking metaphors, likening her to a yellow rose and the voice of all crying. He proclaims his intense love for her, which surpasses all limits and goes beyond his own being and suffering.

The song continues with further comparisons and expressions of love, such as seeing his beloved as his daughter and her music as that of a black person. Caetano's passion and intensity seem to belong to a world beyond convention and reason, describing his love as madness of the heart that takes him to the brink of life itself. It is not only the specific object of his love but the act of loving that gives his life meaning and purpose.

The final verse of the song is perhaps the most poignant, as Caetano muses on the prospect of death, suggesting that dying in the embrace of memory would be a sweet and welcome release. His love is the path and destination of his existence and something that he will never forget, even beyond mortal limits.

Line by Line Meaning

Luz das estrelas
The brightness of the stars

Laço do infinito
The knot of infinity

Gosto tanto dela assim
I like her so much like this

Rosa amarela
Yellow rose

Voz de todo grito
Voice of every shout

Esse imenso desmedido amor
This immense immeasurable love

Vai além de seja o que for
Goes beyond anything that is

Vai além de onde eu vou
Goes beyond where I go

Do que sou minha dor
More than I am, my pain

Minha linha do Equador
My Equator line

Passa mais além do céu de Brasília
Passes beyond the sky of Brasília