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.

Quero ser justo
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Disse que vinha, e veio, lá do Norte
O mar nos olhos
Era noite sem vento e eu nem cri na minha sorte
Houve curiosidade, um calmo susto, alguma palidez
Por trás do ouro do seu rosto

Quero ser justo
Mesmo que não pudéssemos manter a lua cheia acesa

Ou não, ainda,
Nem no seu nem no meu coração

Eu vi você

Uma das coisas mais lindas da natureza
E da civilização

Overall Meaning

In Caetano Veloso's song "Quero ser justo," the lyrics describe the arrival of someone from the North with a sea in their eyes on a windless night. The singer is unsure of their luck or fate but is curious and startled by the new presence. The person has a golden complexion but not everything is perfect. The singer then declares their desire to be just even if it means they cannot keep the full moon lit or keep it in their own heart. The lyrics then describe the singer seeing this person as one of the most beautiful things in both nature and civilization.

The song speaks to the idea of fairness and justice while acknowledging the imperfections in life. The arrival of the person from the North with a sea in their eyes represents the new and unknown in life, something that may be difficult but can also be beautiful. The desire to be just even in the face of difficult situations speaks to the importance of maintaining fairness and equality in all aspects of life. The final lyrics about the person's beauty highlight the importance of appreciating the good and beautiful things in life even when faced with challenges.

Line by Line Meaning

Disse que vinha, e veio, lá do Norte
He said he was coming from the north, and he did come

O mar nos olhos
His eyes were like the sea

Era noite sem vento e eu nem cri na minha sorte
It was a windless night and I didn't believe in my luck

Houve curiosidade, um calmo susto, alguma palidez
There was curiosity, a calm fright, some paleness

Por trás do ouro do seu rosto
Behind the gold of his face

Quero ser justo
I want to be fair

Mesmo que não pudéssemos manter a lua cheia acesa
Even if we couldn't keep the full moon lit up

Ou não, ainda,
Or not, yet

Nem no seu nem no meu coração
Not in your heart nor mine

Eu vi você
I saw you

Uma das coisas mais lindas da natureza
One of the most beautiful things in nature