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.

Recuerdos De Ypacarai
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Una noche tibia nos conocimos
Junto al lago azul de Ypacaraí
Tu cantabas triste por el camino
Viejas melodías en guaraní
Y con el embrujo de tus canciones
Iba renasciendo tu amor en mí
Y en la noche hermosa de plenilunio
De tu blanca mano sentí el calor

Que con sus caricias me dio el amor
Dónde estás ahora, cuñataí
Que tu suave canto no llega a mí
Dónde está ahora
Mi ser te adora con frenesí
Todo te recuerda mi dulce amor
Junto al lago azul de Ypacaraí

Todo te recuerda
Mi amor te llama cuñataí

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Caetano Veloso's song Recuerdos De Ypacarai tell the story of two people who met on a warm night by the blue lake of Ypacaraí. The singer describes how the woman was singing old Guarani melodies, and the magic of her songs made the singer's love for her come alive. On a beautiful moonlit night, the woman's touch filled the singer's heart with love. However, now she's gone, and the singer wonders where she could be, and why he can no longer hear her sweet singing. Despite her absence, the singer's love for her continues to thrive, and everything reminds him of their time together by the blue lake of Ypacarai.

The lyrics describe a powerful connection between two people brought together by music, nature, and love. The serene setting of the blue lake of Ypacaraí contrasts with the sadness of the singer's heart as he longs for his lost love. The lyrics evoke the emotions of longing, loss, and nostalgia, which are universal themes that can touch anyone's heart. The use of the Guarani language adds to the song's authenticity and highlights the cultural richness of Brazil.

Line by Line Meaning

Una noche tibia nos conocimos
On a warm night, we met

Junto al lago azul de Ypacaraí
Next to the blue lake of Ypacaraí

Tu cantabas triste por el camino
You sing sadly along the way

Viejas melodías en guaraní
Old melodies in Guarani

Y con el embrujo de tus canciones
And with the enchantment of your songs

Iba renasciendo tu amor en mí
Your love was reborn in me

Y en la noche hermosa de plenilunio
And in the beautiful full-moon night

De tu blanca mano sentí el calor
I felt the warmth of your white hand

Que con sus caricias me dio el amor
That, with its caresses, gave me love

Dónde estás ahora, cuñataí
Where are you now, dear?

Que tu suave canto no llega a mí
Your gentle singing doesn't reach me