Musical March Madness - Seu Jorge

I could never imagine discussing or demonstrating my interest in Brazilian music without "presenting" the one and only Seu Jorge.

Even though I can't recall my first taste of Seu Jorge's music, I do believe it was before I had ever visited Brazil. I want to say that I heard him somewhere in Latin America and that's where I got hooked. My affection for him as a musician is now matched with my love of his music and his lyrics.

Seu Jorge does not just sing to sing, or to entertain his listeners; he sings of social problems, poverty, and love - true love.

One of my favorite songs of his is called "São Gonça". It's not just the song that I enjoy listening to, but his lyrics as well. As a result, I've decided to include them here:

Pretinha
Faço tudo pelo nosso amor
Faço tudo pelo bem de nosso bem (meu bem)
A saudade é minha dor
Que anda arrasando com meu coração
Não Duvide que um dia
Eu te darei o céu
Meu amor junto com um anel
Pra gente se casar
No cartório ou na igreja
Se você quiser
Se não quiser, tudo bem (meu bem)
Mas tente compreender
Morando em São Gonçalo você sabe como é
Hoje a tarde a ponte engarrafou
E eu fiquei a pé
Tentei ligar pra você
O orelhão da minha rua
Estava escangalhado
Meu cartão tava zerado
Mas você crê se quiser...

For reasons that I don't think I can adequately explain, this song reminds me a lot of E from back when we were in Brazil. As he grew up very poor in Manaus he used to call me quite often from an orelhão (a public telephone) and that was also the time that we decided to get married. We wanted so badly to be together and went through so much to make it work. And it did! Our story is a very beautiful one that I will one day write about (as if I could describe it in words).

Anyway, I'm digressing. Here is a live version of Seu Jorge's song...also known as "Pretinha":



Along with the song posted above, one of my favorites is called "Tive Razão". This is the first song that I ever remember hearing from Seu Jorge, and maybe for that reason it is still one of my favorites, despite the number of other songs that I've grown to love.

I wasn't able to find a way to post the music video of this song so I am going to post the live version and include the link to the video I originally wanted to post:



And finally, since I like to post three videos for everyone's viewing pleasure, and since I like duets, I had to choose the song "Eu não sei parar de te olhar" which is a song performed with Ana Carolina. Her deep voice creates the perfect marriage with Seu Jorge's vocals. (Oh, and I really like the English version by Damien Rice).

...eu não sei parar de te olhar
eu não sei parar de te olhar
não vou parar de te olhar
eu não min canso de te olhar
não sei parar de te olhar...