Queen of the Boob Tube: Caetano Veloso and "Santa Clara, Padroeira da Televisao"

Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso brings us today's random tune, called Santa Clara, Padroeira da Televisao. Born as one of seven children in 1942 in Brazil's state of Bahia in 1942, he won a musical contest after moving to Salvador for college. He soon became one of the leading voices, along with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and the group Os Mutantes, of Tropicalismo. Tropicalismo was a larger movement encompassing poetry, theater and music and bringing together the popular and avante garde. However, Tropicalismo is more well known today for its music, which fused Brazilian and African rhythms with rock and roll. A very divisive movement, Tropicalismo was derided and protested by leftist Brazilian university students because of its influences from outside of Brazil, particularly the United States. Veloso performed in a series of concerts in 1968 at the International Song Festival in Rio de Janeiro, which ended with him lecturing student protesters and walking off the stage. His music was not only attacked from the left, but also the rightist Brazilian dictatorship, and he and Gilberto Gil were jailed and then ordered to leave the country. They spent two years in exile in London in the early 1970s where they worked on their music, and Veloso's music was often censored and banned continuously until the dictatorship exited power in 1985. However, his music became and remains popular outside of Brazil, and the New York Times called him one of the greatest songwriters of the twentieth century. He has also been compared with Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and the Lennon/McCartney partnership. Caetano Veloso has released 34 studio albums and 17 live albums. Santa Clara, Padroeira da Televisao can be found on his 1992 album Circulado.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caetano_Veloso; https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/17/books/music-a-revolutionary-who-s-still-on-the-move.html