Chico Buarque

Francisco Buarque de Hollanda OMCComIH (born 19 June 1944), popularly known 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. However, the awarding of the prize was delayed by four years due to actions by Jair Bolsonaro, but Buarque received it in April 2023. He has also won eleven Brazilian Music Awards, the most important prize for Brazilian music.

Early life and career

Buarque was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 19 June 1944. He came from an intellectually privileged family background—his father Sérgio Buarque de Holanda was a well-known historian, sociologist and journalist, and his mother Maria Amélia Cesário Alvim was a painter and pianist. He is also the brother of the singers Miúcha, Cristina Buarque, and politician Ana de Hollanda. As a child, he was impressed by the musical style of bossa nova, specifically the work of Tom Jobim and João Gilberto. He was also interested in writing, composing his first short story at 18 years old and studying European literature, also at a young age. One of his most consuming interests, however, was playing football, beginning at the age of four, and he still played regularly in his 60s.

Before becoming a musician, Buarque decided at one point to study architecture at the University of São Paulo, but this choice did not lead to a career in that field; Buarque often skipped classes.

He made his public debut as a musician and composer in 1964, rapidly building his reputation at music festivals and television variety shows when bossa nova came to light and Nara Leão recorded three of his songs. "Apesar de Você" was overlooked by the military censors, becoming an important anthem in the democratic movement. After selling more than 100,000 copies, the single was eventually censored and removed from the market. At one point in 1974, the censors banned any song authored by Chico Buarque. Then, he created a pseudonym, naming himself "Julinho de Adelaide", complete with a life history and interviews with newspapers. "Julinho de Adelaide" authored songs such as "Jorge Maravilha" ("Wonder Jorge") and "Acorda Amor" ("Wake Up Love" as in a lover) before he was outed in a Jornal do Brasil news story. Buarque also wrote a play named Calabar, about the Dutch invasion of Brazil in the seventeenth century, drawing parallels with the military regime. Despite the censorship, songs such as "Samba de Orly" (1970), "Acorda amor" (1974, as "Julinho da Adelaide") manifested Buarque's continuing opposition to the military regime.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he collaborated with filmmakers, playwrights, and musicians in further protest works against the dictatorship. Buarque approached the 1983 Concert for Peace in Nicaragua as a valid forum to vocalise his strong political views. Throughout the decade, he crafted many of his songs as vehicles to describe the re-democratisation of Brazil. The Concert for Peace in Nicaragua was one in a concert series known as the "Central American Peace Concerts." These concerts featured various Latin American artists. The political turmoil that plagued this era was expressed in many of Buarque's songs. He later wrote Budapeste, a novel that achieved critical national acclaim and won the Prêmio Jabuti, a Brazilian literary award comparable to the Booker Prize.

His 2017 album Caravanas was named the third best Brazilian album of that year by the Brazilian edition of Rolling Stone.

Awards and recognitions 2010: São Paulo Prize for Literature — Shortlisted in the Best Book of the Year category for Leite Derramado 2013: Casa de las Américas prize for Spilt Milk (Leche derramada, Leite derramado), winner of narrative fiction. 2019: Camões Prize

Discography

1966: Chico Buarque de Hollanda (Vol. 1) 1966: Morte e Vida Severina 1967: Chico Buarque de Hollanda (Vol. 2) 1968: Chico Buarque de Hollanda (Vol. 3) 1969: Umas e outras – compacto 1969: Chico Buarque na Itália 1970: Apesar de você 1970: Per un pugno di samba 1970: Chico Buarque de Hollanda (Vol. 4) 1971: Construção 1972: Quando o carnaval chegar 1972: Caetano e Chico - juntos e ao vivo 1973: Chico canta, mildly edited by the censors of the Brazilian military government both in lyrics and title, it was originally called "Chico Canta Calabar". 1974: Sinal fechado 1975: Chico Buarque & Maria Bethânia ao vivo 1976: Meus Caros Amigos 1977: Cio da Terra compacto 1977: Os saltimbancos 1977: Gota d'água 1978: Chico Buarque 1979: Ópera do Malandro 1980: Vida 1980: Show 1º de Maio compacto 1981: Almanaque 1981: Saltimbancos trapalhões 1982: Chico Buarque en espanhol 1983: Para viver um grande amor 1983: O grande circo místico 1984: Chico Buarque (Vermelho) 1985: O Corsário do rei 1985: Ópera do Malandro 1985: Malandro 1986: Melhores momentos de Chico & Caetano 1987: Francisco 1988: Dança da meia-lua 1989: Chico Buarque 1990: Chico Buarque ao vivo Paris le Zenith 1992: Convite Para Ouvir 1993: Para Todos 1995: Uma palavra 1997: Terra 1998: As cidades 1998: Chico Buarque da Mangueira 1999: Chico ao vivo 2001: Chico e as cidades (DVD) 2001: Cambaio 2002: Chico Buarque – Duetos 2003: Chico ou o país da delicadeza perdida (DVD) 2005: Meu Caro Amigo (DVD) 2005: A Flor da Pele (DVD) 2005: Vai passar (DVD) 2005: Anos Dourados (DVD) 2005: Estação Derradeira (DVD) 2005: Bastidores (DVD) 2006: O Futebol (DVD) 2006: Romance (DVD) 2006: Uma Palavra (DVD) 2006: Carioca (CD + DVD with the documentary Desconstrução) 2007: Carioca Ao Vivo 2011: Chico Buarque 2012: Na Carreira (DVD) 2017: Caravanas 2018: "Caravanas - Ao vivo"

Other works

Books 1966: A Banda (Songbook) 1974: Fazenda Modelo 1979: Chapeuzinho Amarelo 1981: A Bordo do Rui Barbosa 1991: Estorvo 1995: Benjamin 2003: Budapeste 2009: Leite Derramado 2014: O Irmão Alemão (published in English as My German Brother ) 2019: Essa Gente 2021: Anos de Chumbo

Plays 1967/8: Roda Viva 1973: Calabar (co-authored with Ruy Guerra) 1975: Gota d'água 1978: Ópera do Malandro (based on John Gay's Beggar's Opera and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera) 1983: O Grande Circo Místico

Film 1972: Quando o carnaval chegar (coauthor) 1983: Para viver um grande amor (coauthor) 1985: Ópera do Malandro 2001: Water and Salt (actor) 2009: Budapeste (based on his book)

In popular culture The cover art of the Buarque's 1966 album Chico Buarque de Hollanda became a viral internet meme with "happy" Chico and "sad" Chico.