Geraldo Vandré

An icon of Brazilian protest music, singer Geraldo Vandré returned from exile a changed man, disappearing from the public eye almost completely. Born Geraldo Pedrosa de Araújo Dias on September 12, 1935, he moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro in 1951 and started studying in 1957 at the Universidade do Distrito Federal, becoming involved with several political groups. Vandré made his official debut with an eponymous LP in 1964, which spawned the singles "Fica Mal com Deus" e "Menino das Laranjas." In 1966, “Disparada,” co-written with Théo de Barros, made it to the finals on TV Record’s Festival de Música Popular Brasileira and shared the first prize with Chico Buarque’s “A Banda.” One of his songs, “Pra não dizer que não falei das flores,” presented on the 1968 Festival Internacional da Canção, became an anti-dictatorship anthem as he was forced into exile shortly after the release of Canto Geral (1968), one of his most combative LPs. The singer and poet delivered two more full-lengths in exile - the live album Geraldo Vandré no Chile (1969) and Das Terras de Benvirá (1973), recorded in 1970 in France with the Quinteto Violado. Upon his return to Brazil in 1973, Vandré confounded his supporters with a tribute to the Brazilian Air Force entitled “Fabiana” and then mysteriously quit the music industry altogether. Subsequently, he made a few scattered live presentations throughout the 80s and 90s but generally shied away from stages until 2018, when he performed a rendition of “Pra não dizer que não falei das flores” in his native João Pessoa accompanied by Orquestra Sinfônica da Paraíba.

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