Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, better know as Chico Buarque, is a Brazilian… Read Full Bio ↴Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, better know as Chico Buarque, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, playwright, writer and poet. He is best known for his music, which often includes social, economic and cultural reflections on Brazil.

The firstborn son of Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda, Buarque lived at several locations throughout his childhood, though mostly in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Rome. He wrote and studied literature as a child and found music through the bossa nova compositions of Tom Jobim and João Gilberto. He performed as a singer and guitarist in the 1960s as well as writing a play that was deemed dangerous by the Brazilian military dictatorship of the time. Buarque, along with several Tropicalist and MPB musicians, was threatened by the Brazilian military government and eventually left Brazil for Italy in 1969. However, he came back to Brazil in 1970, and continued to record, perform, and write, though much of his material was suppressed by government censors. He released several more albums in the 1980s and published three novels in the 1990s and 2000s.

In 2019, Buarque was awarded the Camões Prize, the most important prize for literature in the Portuguese language.

Festa Imodesta
Chico Buarque Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Numa festa imodesta como esta
Vamos homenagear

Todo aquele que nos empresta sua testa
Construindo coisas pra se cantar
Tudo aquilo que o malandro pronuncia
E que o otário silencia
Toda festa que se dá ou não se dá

Passa pela fresta da cesta e resta a vida
Ah! acima do coração
Que sofre com razão
A razão que vota no coração
E acima da razão a rima
E acima da rima a nota da canção
Bemol, natural, sustenida no ar
Viva aquele que se presta a esta ocupação

Salve o compositor popular

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Chico Buarque's Festa Imodesta convey the idea of celebrating and honoring the everyday creators of music, the "malandro" who speaks out and the "otário" who remains silent. This celebration takes place in a modest party, where the focus is on recognizing the value of those who lend their forehead to building something to sing about. Buarque elevates the role of the composer to a position worthy of admiration, stating that they are the ones who not only craft the rhymes but also oversee the harmonies and notes that form the songs we hear.

Line by Line Meaning

Numa festa imodesta como esta
In an immodest party like this,

Vamos homenagear
Let's honor

Todo aquele que nos empresta sua testa
Everyone who lends us their forehead

Construindo coisas pra se cantar
Building things to sing about

Tudo aquilo que o malandro pronuncia
Everything the hustler says

E que o otário silencia
And the sucker stays quiet

Toda festa que se dá ou não se dá
Every party, whether it happens or not

Passa pela fresta da cesta e resta a vida
It passes through the gap in the basket and what remains is life

Ah! acima do coração
Ah! above the heart

Que sofre com razão
That suffers with reason

A razão que vota no coração
The reason that votes in the heart