We continue the conversation about world hits in different languages of countries and peoples of the world. Previously, the channel has already published material about songs in Spanish, today it is the turn of the neighbors of the Spanish-speaking countries and peoples in the Iberian Peninsula and the Latin American continent, who speak and sing in Portuguese. Developing the theme of well-known hits in national languages, I remembered that I know quite a lot of Portuguese songs, and therefore I decided to dedicate a separate collection to this language. Links to other articles of the “language cycle” will be presented at the end of the publication. Traditionally, for the collection format on my channel, I bring to your attention 7 well-known songs in Portuguese, selected at my discretion.
This time I decided not to include “Eurovision hits” in the article. Portugal is one of those countries whose representatives often sing in their native language, but even the “golden” ballad of Salvador Sobral, which brought the country the only victory in history, was not a hit song in its essence. In terms of “hit production” in the Portuguese-speaking world, Brazil is quite naturally in the lead, so most of the hits will be from this Latin American country.
Tico Tico no fuba
“Tico Tico no fuba”, aka “Tico Tico de falero” or simply “Tico Tico” is a legendary Brazilian composition, the oldest in this collection. The melody is the same age as the Russian revolution. Composer Zequinha de Abrera wrote it in 1917 and gave it its first original title “Tico Tico de falero”. Tiko in Portuguese is a small yellow-breasted bird, a type of sparrow. The literal translation of the author’s title “Sparrow in bran”, since 1931, the name “Tico Tico no fuba” has been attached to the work, that is, the bran was noticed on “corn flour”, as the word “fuba” is translated.
At first it was just a melody, it was performed and continues to be performed in an instrumental version.
Following the new name, the melody also acquired words. The canonical text was written by Alonsio de Oliveira. In 1942, the work was performed by the Brazilian singer Ademilde Fonseca – she owns the first and classic performance of this song.
“Tico Tico no fuba” was sung by various singers and singers, both in Brazil and abroad. For example, Brazilian pop singer Nei Matogrosso presented his version.
As part of the competition program of one of the seasons of the Russian version of the Voice show, the famous singer and teacher Eteri Beriashvili chose the Brazilian hit for her performance.
Marcha de los Pescadores
The Generals of the Sandpits” is a 1971 film made by the Americans based on the novel by a Brazilian and very much loved by the Soviet public. With “Captains of the Sand” by Jorge Amado and its film adaptation, our man is inextricably associated with the song, in the most famous version beginning with the words: “I began to live in the slums of the city.” Different generations remember her performed by the Accord ensemble and the Accident group. Other versions of the text in Russian were also written to the popular melody.
In the picture, this song sounded in the original – in Portuguese. Its author is the classic of Brazilian music Dorival Caimmi.
The composer spent his childhood years in Bahia, where the action of “Captains of the Sand” is just unfolding. Moreover, the musician was friends with the author of the book’s primary source – the writer Jorge Amado. He did not create the song specifically for the film, it was written back in 1965. The fact that it was his song in the author’s performance that designed the film is more than a logical decision. The content of the song also refers to childhood experiences in Bailly. This is a coastal area – a fishing area. About people engaged in fishing, and narrates the original Portuguese text. The composition bears the corresponding name: Marca dos los Pescadores in translation means “the fisherman’s march”.
Dorival Caymmi – Retirantes
Dorival Caimmi is marked in my selection with two compositions. The second also gained fame thanks to the movie. But this time this movie was filmed in Brazil itself. The TV viewers of the late Soviet era heard the song “Retirantes” at least 30 times – exactly so many episodes in the “international version” of the legendary Brazilian melodrama “Slave Izaura”. It was a pioneering series that laid the foundation for the fashion for “Latin American soap” on domestic television, and for “tear-squeezing” serial opuses in general. It was shown in our country for the first time in 1988, and in the homeland the 100-episode original version was released in 1976. The series was shown not only in the USSR, and the composition “Retirantes” was remembered by many. The name is translated as “The Song of Settlers” or “Emigrants”.
About the origin of this song, the data in Russian-language sources differ. I will present both versions. Somewhere it is indicated that it was written specifically for the series, but there is also a more interesting story that dates the birth of the song as far back as 1946. According to this version, it is the fruit of a collaboration between fellow classics of Brazilian popular music and literature, Dorvel Caimmi and Jorge Amado, and appeared in the course of joint work on a play based on the novel Endless Lands. And then she was included in the series.
Caimmi lived a long life – 94 years. His creative path began back in the 1930s, and the singer-songwriter died already in the new century, in 2008, in Rio de Janeiro. Therefore, purely theoretically it could be so, and so. It can be assumed that an already existing song was reworked for the series. This happens quite often.
Kaoma – “Lambada”
Perhaps, if you conduct a survey about which song in Portuguese is the most famous, then with a high degree of probability a significant part of the audience will remember exactly “Lambada”. The composition, sung by a Brazilian, began its triumphal procession from Paris, where the Kaoma group was creative. The soloist of the band, Loalva Braz, moved from Rio to France in 1985 and joined the band. The legendary hit was born in 1988, and in the summer of the following year, the melody became a worldwide hit and made popular the Brazilian dance of the same name, rooted in Indian culture. Lambada was danced to the popular melody in various parts of the world, trying to copy the movements of the clip. And now the dance is strongly associated with this particular composition.
The Soviet Union was overwhelmed by “lambadomania”. In our country, even a popular cartoon character performed the dance. A hare danced to the music of the Kaoma group in one of the episodes of the popular animated series Nu You Wait.
The world fame that came to the Kaoma group after Lambada turned out to be smacked of scandal. It turned out that “Lambada” is a cover of a Latin American song of the same time. The original was born a year earlier in Bolivia, a song called “Llorando se fué” performed by the group “Los Kjarkas”. The Franco-Brazilian team was accused of plagiarism. A lawsuit followed, as a result of which the group “got on the money”, but this did not diminish the popularity of the song, and Loalva Braz, along with the group, continued to perform it.
The life of the singer, whose voice gave the world “Lambada” ended tragically. She was killed in 2017 in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 63.