Edy Star

Edivaldo Souza (10 January 1938 – 24 April 2025), better known by his artistic names Edy, Edy Souza (at the beginning of his career) and Edy Star, was a Brazilian singer, composer, actor, dancer, theatre producer, television presenter and artist. Having started working in entertainment as a child, he worked in various fields and in various genres, primarily with Brazilian burlesque (called chanchada), cabarets and revue theatre. Born and raised in the state of Bahia, in the Northeast of Brazil, he would move to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in the late 1960s, both of which by that point became the major entertainment centres of Brazil.

Star would go on, during the 70s, to become involved in avant-garde works, including the album Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista Apresenta Sessão das 10 with Raul Seixas, Sérgio Sampaio, and Miriam Batucada. He became known later on for his vulgar performances that challenged the limits of societal attitudes towards sexuality at the time. After having initially begun his performances in the then-rundown Praça Mauá in Rio de Janeiro, and, afterwards, continuing on to perform in locations often frequented by the upper class, such as the night clubs Number One and Up's. He later became known for his performances of The Rocky Horror Show, by Richard O'Brien. His success with his performances in Brazil led to the recording of his first album, Sweet Edy. He also worked in theatre and in television for the rest of that decade and into the 1980s. In the 1990s, Edy Star moved to Spain, where he continued to work at theatres and as a producer at night clubs. After living there for 20 years, he returned to Brazil and began singing again, relaunching his first album, as well as a new album, titled Cabaré Star, in 2017.

He was also known for his shows that mixed various styles of theatre and challenged the social conventions on sexuality at the time, being one of the first artists in Brazil to come out as gay.

Biography Star was born in Juazeiro on 10 January 1938, to a bookkeeper from an upper-middle class family from Salvador and a homemaker from a poor family in Juazeiro. His father had as a pastime amateur photography. He also worked as a football referee, and was refereeing a match in Juazeiro when he met Star's mother. His father's family did not approve of the relationship due to the socioeconomic status of his mother, but his father insisted on marrying her and moved to Juazeiro. Star, on turning a year old, moved with his family to Salvador.

With his siblings, he had a happy childhood in Salvador, living in a large house with a garden replete with banana, coconut, and mango trees. One of his childhood passions was reading. He read comics and magazines such as O Tico Tico, Captain Marvel, Classics Illustrated, Almanaque Vida Infantil, Revista da Semana, O Cruzeiro, and Revista do Globo. By 17, he also read many authors such as Alexandre Dumas, Érico Veríssimo, Monteiro Lobato, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jorge Amado.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Star received the nickname Bofélia as a reference to the character Ofélia, played by actress Sônia Mamede on Balança Mas Não Cai, broadcast by Rádio Nacional at that time.

Career

Early beginnings Before working at Petrobras, Star had already participated in performances at a circus, against the wishes of his father who did not want his son to begin an artistic career. After being fired from Petrobras in 1961, he went on to start exhibitions of his paintings in Salvador, going by the name Edy Souza. He lived in the Boa Viagem neighborhood when he met Waldir Serrão and joined his rock and roll fan club, Elvis Club Rock, beginning to meet superficially a young Raul Seixas, at that point at just 15 years old. He began to rehearse rock with Serrão and keyboard player Thildo Gama, participating in various shows with the "turma do rock" in Salvador. At the same time, he met Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethânia, going and frequenting parties with the two siblings. In 1964, he came into contact with Gilberto Gil, already known as a singer for his performances on TV Itapoan. The two would come to compose a song together, "Procissão", which would be the first single released by Gil on his first album, Louvação, released in 1967. However, the co-authorship with Edy Star would only be recognized by Gil decades after. Not long after, Edy went on to perform with Caetano, Maria Bethânia, Gil and the youth that liked bossa nova in Bahia, which included Gal Costa and Tom Zé as well. Meanwhile, when they presented the special Nós, Por Exemplo..., which had its inaugural show at Teatro Vila Velha, which would reach a large audience for this group, Star did not take part, presenting a folklore show called Galeria Bazarte, mainly a handful of blocks while there. Though Augusto Boal had seen both shows, Star was not called when Boal took the rest of the group to São Paulo so that they could debut in the special Arena Canta Bahia, at Teatro de Arena. As a result, Star had maintained himself, since the beginning, as someone who would traverse the different cultural movements in Bahia, participating in both the "turma do rock" with Serrão and Seixas, as well as the "turma do Vila Velha", with Gil and Caetano.

Afterwards, he entered the Companhia Baiana de Comédias, presenting theatrical pieces in rural parts of various states in the northeast. This eventually took him to Pernambuco where, beginning in 1966, he established himself in the city of Olinda. Meanwhile, he also attempted a career as an artistic producer with TV Jornal do Commercio in Recife. His career took a turn when he starred in, together with Teca Calazans, the trendy musical Memórias de Dois Cantadores, which they performed in Recife in August 1967 and was accompanied by musicians Marcelo Melo and Geraldo Azevedo (guitars), Generino (flute), and Naná Vasconcelos (percussions). The play received numerous awards at the Festival de Teatro de Pernambuco in 1968, including for best musical, best figure, and best group. The musicals success opened the door for Edy Star to be invited, along with Naná Vasconcelos, to go to Rio de Janeiro to defend the song "Dia Cheio De Ogum", by composer Capiba, at the O Brasil Canta no Rio festival in December 1968. Though the song was not billed for the festival, it reached the final. There was later the release of an album with the 12 finalists through CID, a subsidiary of record label Itamaraty, Edy Stars record debut.

At the end of 1967, Edy Star returned to Bahia and became an artistic producer and presenter on TV Itapoan in Salvador. While there, producing and presenting the program Poder Jovem, he saw the arrival of new names such as Pepeu Gomes and Moraes Moreira, at a time before they formed the Novos Baianos, Rosa Passos, Maria Creuza, and Antônio Carlos e Jocáfi. Along with these, he appeared while singing on a program by Serrão on Rádio Cultura. It was on this program he met Seixas, who at that point lead the group Raulzito e os Panteras, a rock band that was widely known in Bahia for their performances while accompanying other artists, especially those connected to the Jovem Guarda en vogue in the state at that time. Star went on to have radio hits by singing from the repertoires of Jerry Adriani, Wanderley Cardoso, José Feliciano, and Trini Lopez, having as his most well known song a cover of the song La Bamba, where some sections of the audience did not like as much the more effeminate mannerisms that Star had. Meanwhile, after a difficult start, they soon became good friends. In 1968, Seixas went to Rio de Janeiro at the invite of Adriano to record an album for their group, but were not successful in creating any hits. However, after briefly to Bahia, he returned to Rio to become a producer at Discos CBS, again for works by Adriani. Star continued dividing his time between radio and TV and, during this time period, participating in various festivals with many different artists, including having personally met Ravi Shankar, Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger, and Marianne Faithfull. Meanwhile, in January 1971, Seixas met Sérgio Sampaio when he was accompanying composer Odibar for an audition with the label. Despite Odibar having left, Seixas brought Sampaio on when he played a composition of his titled "Chorinho Inconsequente". As a result, they became inseparable friends beginning in 1971.

Seixas had decided to create a conceptual album, in the image of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles; Freak Out! by The Mothers of Invention; and Tropicalia ou Panis et Circencis by Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Nara Leão, Os Mutantes, and Tom Zé. As such, he would see in Sampaio an ideal partner to go through with a Brazilian conceptual album, that would mix together influences from music both in Brazil and abroad. As they had decided to unite a diverse group to undertake the effort, they soon called on Star. Difficulties began to emerge when they wanted a female voice to add. They initially thought about Diana, the then girlfriend of Odair José, and Lílian, at that point in a duo with Leno, but they were both taken out of consideration due to their relationships. Another singer that was considered was Lena Rios, a singer from the state of Piauí who began her career by singing a song composed by Seixas at the 1972 International Festival of Song. After also being taken out of consideration, Star remembered a well-humored singer he had seen when he performed at a nightclub in Rio, Boate Drink, by Djalma Ferreira. When they called Miriam Batucada, she soon gained among them the nickname Dr. Silvana, due to the large pair of glasses she had used and reminded them of the DC Comics character.

The recordings of Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista Apresenta Sessão das 10 began in the last week of June 1971 and ended on the first week of the following month. The four produced a lot of material for the album, but various songs were cut due to censorship. In the end, they recorded 12 tracks where they divided the vocals, which were accompanied by members of the bands Renato e Seus Blue Caps and Lafayette e seu Conjunto, all interspersed by humorous vignettes. The production was done by Seixas and Mauro Motta, with arrangements by Ian Guest. The launch of the album occurred on 21 July and the album came to receive positive reviews from major figures of the Brazilian counterculture at the time: Torquato Neto, in his column at Última Hora; and philosopher Luiz Carlos Maciel, who wrote for the weekly newspaper O Pasquim. They also did interviews and were subject to a cartoon by Henfil. Nonetheless, Edy Star had his career interrupted by a unilateral decision from the label's president, Evandro Ribeiro, to take him out of stores, less than two months after the album's launch. The sales of the album at the time were hard to estimate due to his short career, but some of his songs began to be played on radio and had an impact on the counterculture scene in Rio de Janeiro.

There were many rumors around the album, spread mainly by Seixas and Sampaio: they said that the album had been the most expensive album produced in Brazil up to that point; or that an Egyptian harp had been sent to be brought to São Paulo to play only one chord; or even that the group had recorded the album while hidden, at night, so that nobody at CBS would know and that, for this reason, Seixas, who was a successful producer for the label, would have been fired for. All of these rumors were considered a marketing tactic by Seixas and Sampaio, and were summarily disproven by Edy Star in interviews after their deaths. with composition by Eduardo Conde. The cast included Zé Rodrix, Kao Rossman, Diana Strella, Wolf Maya, Acácio Gonçalves, Vera Setta, Betina Viany, Lucélia Santos, and Nildo Parente. As predicted by Star, though the performances received good reviews by the public, the audiences would be silent, not showing much enthusiasm for what should have been a comedic piece. As such, when Conde found it would be impossible to continue due to suffering from hepatitis, Star was asked by Araújo to substitute him. Along with the main actor, the play also lost their director. As a result, Araújo and Rossman gave a blank slate to Star for him to make changes to the musical to make it more comedic. He added a comedic (or chanchada) character to the piece, based on his experiences with cabaret and revue theatre. From the beginning, the cast resisted his changes, asking that he be replaced. However, with the large public success that they would garner later own, they would later embrace the changes. The success led him to be invited to remake the special the following year, and he decided to definitively return to Brazil. In 2023, he released the album Meu Amigo Sérgio Sampaio, with rerecordings of songs by Sampaio, with participations by Maria Alcina, Renato Piau, and Zeca Baleiro.

Death Edy Star died in São Paulo on 24 April 2025, at the age of 87. He had been hospitalized at Hospital Heliópolis due to complications of insufficient breathing, acute renal failure, and acute pancreatitis.

Career as a plastic artist As a plastic artist, he had more than 30 expositions in the United States and Europe, 16 of which were individual exhibits and four Biennales. Even then, he possessed a catalogue of works with a preface written by Jorge Amado. Along with this, he is known for his style of mixing music and theatre, having been a pioneer towards the introduction of glam rock to Brazil, though this came with the challenge of the limits imposed on artists during the military dictatorship.

Discography Discography listed on Discogs, along with the Dicionário Cravo Albin da Música Popular Brasileira, and by IMMUB.

CDs 1970 - Aqui É Quente, Bicho! / Matilda - Discos CBS 1974 - Baiock / Ai de Mim - Som Livre

Studio albums 1974 - Sweet Edy - Som Livre 2017 - Cabaré Star - Saravá Discos

With the Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista 1971 - Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista Apresenta Sessão das 10 - Discos CBS (with Raul Seixas, Sérgio Sampaio, and Miriam Batucada)

With Zaza Big Circus 1979 - Por uma Alegria Ampla, Geral e Irrestrita! - Discos CBS

Participations 1968 - O Brasil Canta no Rio - CID (Itamaraty) (track 5) 1974 - Corrida do Ouro - Trilha Sonora Original - Som Livre (track 9) 2006 - Erasmo 65 - Na Estrada - Universal Music Group (track 15 of disc 2) 2011 - Carrossel de Baco (with Carrossel de Baco. Track 2) 2012 - 100 anos de Gonzagão - Lua Music (Track 11 of disc 3) 2013 - Abaixo a Cueca - Paulo Azeviche (Track 1, "Abaixo a Cueca", authored by Zé Rodrix and Paulo Coelho) 2018 - Dalva de Oliveira - 100 Anos ao Vivo - Biscoito Fino (Track 13 of disc 1)

Videography Videography by IMMUB.

Participation 2011 - Sexo MPB - O Show - EMI (Track 9)