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.

Valsinha
Chico Buarque Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Um dia ele chegou tão diferente
Do seu jeito de sempre chegar
Olhou-a de um jeito muito mais quente
Do que sempre costumava olhar
E não maldisse a vida
Tanto quanto era seu jeito de sempre falar
E nem deixou-a só num canto
Pra seu grande espanto convidou-a pra rodar

Então, ela se fez bonita
Como há muito tempo não queria ousar
Com seu vestido decotado
Cheirando a guardado de tanto esperar
Depois o dois deram-se os braços
Como há muito tempo não se usava dar
E cheios de ternura e graça
Foram para a praça e começaram a se abraçar
E ali dançaram tanta dança
Que a vizinhança toda despertou
E foi tanta felicidade
Que toda cidade se iluminou
E foram tantos beijos loucos
Tantos gritos roucos como não se ouvia mais

Que o mundo compreendeu
E o dia amanheceu em paz

Overall Meaning

The song Valsinha by Chico Buarque tells the story of a man who arrives one day to meet his partner in a different way than usual. He looks at her with more warmth than he used to and doesn't curse life as he normally does. Instead, he invites her to dance with him. The woman, who had not felt beautiful in a long time, puts on a daring dress and they embrace each other with tenderness and grace. They go to the town square and start dancing, attracting the attention of the whole neighborhood. They exchange so many kisses and screams of joy that the world understands them, and the day dawns in peace.

Line by Line Meaning

Um dia ele chegou tão diferente
One day he arrived so different from his usual way of arriving

Do seu jeito de sempre chegar
From his usual way of arriving

Olhou-a de um jeito muito mais quente
He looked at her in a much more intense way

Do que sempre costumava olhar
Than he usually looked at her

E não maldisse a vida
And didn't curse life

Tanto quanto era seu jeito de sempre falar
As much as it was his usual way of speaking

E nem deixou-a só num canto
And didn't leave her alone in a corner

Pra seu grande espanto convidou-a pra rodar
To her great surprise, he invited her to dance

Então, ela se fez bonita
So, she made herself beautiful

Como há muito tempo não queria ousar
As she hadn't dared to do for a long time

Com seu vestido decotado
With her low-cut dress