How was the dazzling show of Caetano Veloso, which shone and distilled artistic beauty in the 80s

At the age of 80, Caetano Veloso continues to shine and distill artistic beauty with his very long songbook that covers almost his entire life.

On Friday night, before a full Movistar Arena, the great Brazilian musician returned to the country and spread joy to his Argentine audience that, along with him, hummed or sang loudly great hits from his different eras, going through his times of tropicalism, MPB (Brazilian Popular Music), bossa nova, or samba, sound rhythm that was so much celebrated by its people in its different passages, in the hour and a half that the concert lasted.

Caetano Veloso, with his very long songbook that covered almost his entire career. Photo: Martín Bonetto.

A great reunion

Caetano had last performed within the framework of Lollapalooza, but his last own concert was in 2019, before the pandemic and with his three children: Tom, Zeca and Moreno.

In this way, Friday, June 9, was an intimate and emotional reunion, both on the part of the artist on stage and his faithful audience who did not stop shouting almost in unison: "I love you, Caetano!" from the field and the sides of the stadium in the neighborhood of Villa Crespo.

This time, his return to Buenos Aires had to do with the official presentation of his latest album entitled Meu Coco, for whose tour he joined notable songs from the work with legendary themes from his extensive career.

Caetano Veloso had last performed in Argentina within the framework of Lollapalooza, but his last own concert was in 2019, before the pandemic. Photo: Martín Bonetto.

To achieve this, the artist proposed to combine songs with lighting, thus generating a solid, colorful and harmonious proposal, from the beginning to the end.

The beginning of the show

With the framework of a public over 40 years, at 21.15 hours the lights went out and the announcement of his arrival was in Portuguese.

Caetano Veloso, with cream suit, combined perfectly with a white button-down shirt and sneakers of the same tone. Photo: Martín Bonetto.

Suddenly, the singer-songwriter burst onto the center of the stage dressed in a cream suit, combined perfectly with a white button-down shirt and sneakers of the same color.

At his sides, his great partners of the evening: two percussionists on one side and the other, keyboard, guitar and bass. They all sounded perfectly, as if it were the pendulum of a wall clock. All of them, cariocas, with the exception of Veloso, who was born and raised in Bahia.

At the beginning of the show, Veloso and his companions were exultant through pop and powerful rock, generating a remarkable immediate impact on all the diners present.

To pure rhythm and conviction, the band attacked with Avarandado and Meu Coco (song that gave name to their new album), being the first two great welcome shakes, and in which the batucada drums (surdo or bass drum) were the main protagonists.

Then it was the turn to approach bossa nova through Anjos Tronchos, another of the songs on his 2021 plaque.

Behind came the first applause, a Caetano in a cappella key to which the band was perfectly coupled for the interpretation of Sampa, from his album Muito, from 1978, which he recorded just two and a half years after his first time in Argentina.

Caetano Veloso also sang in a song of his in English, on the 50th anniversary of his appearance. Photo: Martín Bonetto.

An abstract figure who fulfilled the role of logo on the curtain was also the faithful companion in this game of lights, sounds or shadows, which mainly after the first section of the concert was inescapable to overlook when looking fixed towards the stage.

His first words

Close to fifteen minutes into the concert, Veloso only addressed the audience for the first time.

Caetano Veloso also surprised with a beautiful version of "Volver a los 17". Photo: Martín Bonetto.

"Good evening, Buenos Aires. The power of shaking here is always for me a beauty. Last night it was a little hotter, but it's always adorable. I could not stop choosing a song by Tranza, because this year marks the 50th anniversary of its appearance, "he said and received the first equal applause.

The song chosen in commemoration of that discazo of his was the one that appears in English, You don't know me.

Immediately, he took the floor again, with a little tour of his history.

"Now I want to sing a song that I didn't sing when I first met her. And that my friends sang it. I will sing it as a demonstration of honor, because after singing it in Chile it generated a prize called ...".

Suddenly, silence. Everyone in the stadium thought that Veloso had forgotten the name of that recognition received, but it was not so, but a trick of the artist to manage the times and emotions, because seconds later he resumed and revealed the second part of his mini speech.

Caetano Veloso played with a band capable of moving from the most traditional Brazilian music to the rock powerhouse. Photo: Martín Bonetto.

"I was a little moved. The award received was called Mercedes Sosa... It is one of my favorites of Violeta Parra. Let's see, I started in tropicalism in 1967, just the same year that Violeta died. I wasn't interested in those songs, I was interested in my college classmates. I focused on melodramatic boleros in a different way."

After taking a breath, and looking as if towards the beyond, he thought for a moment and continued: "Then once we invited Mercedes Sosa to the television program we had with Chico Buarque and we accompanied her in a procedure of the subject. But only now do I dare to sing it in its entirety. I feel demanded," he said in a moved tone.

This is how his version of Volver a las 17 arrived, an anthem immortalized by the Chilean protest singer Parra, murdered in dictatorship and who later toured the world in the voice of Negra Sosa.

"Thank you very much, I thank and apologize because in Chile it came out more whole, but the important thing is that I wanted to sing it," the Bahian musician resumed, with a hint of discontent with his version at the end of the song.

Bossa and rock power

After agitating the audience to stop and dance Cajuina, from the album Cinema Trascendental, from 1979, came other songs well glued together: Reconvexo, Itapuá and O pulsar, which according to Veloso the lyrics belong to "one of the best contemporary poets of Brazil, Augusto Basualdo".

Caetano Veloso, at 80 years of age, once again dazzled the Argentine public. Photo: Martín Bonetto.

It took only a few seconds until the last time the musician referred to historical issues of his musical career.

"I recorded the album Trilhos Urbanos, then I organized Banda Nova, a name I gave that for lack of imagination. I had other bands as well. But I wanted to put together a rock band, with guitar, bass and drums. That's how this song I'm going to sing was born."

It was A Bossa Nova é foda, where the band returned to the rock power of the beginning of the concert and the guitar distortion was the axis of the sound, in addition to the drums and an insistent bass and based on constant pressure.

Caetano Veloso gave a formidable show at Movistar Arena. Photo: Martín Bonetto.

Beyond the equal liking of the audience throughout the set chosen by the visiting artist, the greatest dance clamor happened when samba returned to his repertoire.

Although before that stretch he presented, praise through, his musicians on stage: Alberto Continentino, Kaina de Souza, Lucas Costa and Thiago Brigo. For all he asked for extended applause that was immediately reproduced throughout the Movistar Arena.

Then the audience prepared to leave their seats and start dancing crazy, even in the corridors: the songs that called for unbridled dance were Sem Samba nao da, Lua de São Jorge and, within the farewell encores, Noite de Cristal, from the album that brought him back to Buenos Aires.

To all this, it was already a quarter to eleven o'clock at night and the goodbye came; The feeling of having lived a magical moment was framed in a remarkable way in the faces of the audience that retired placidly, with wide smiles on their faces.

Outside the stadium, the temperature had dropped considerably. Eleven degrees was in the City of Buenos Aires. However, that body heat with which Caetano Veloso left everyone served as a great shield against the climatic onslaught at the moment of retaking the street and saying goodbye to an autumn Friday that ended in a formidable way.

MFB

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Caetano Veloso, standard bearer of Brazilian popular music, performed at the Movistar Arena

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