Gilberto Gil

Gilberto Gil is singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is certainly the most influential Brazilian musician as he currently holds the position of minister of culture. He started his music career as a student of business administration and he has released a large amount of albums in a great variety of styles since then. He is best known for his Tropicália recordings in the late 1960s which did not only represent a genre of music but also a social and political movement.

Biography
Gilberto Gil was born in the city of Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia in the Northeast of Brazil, in June of 1942. His family moved to Ituaçu in the hinterland of this state just after his birth. As a child, he spent much time listening to the local radio and to the town’s bands. He started taking accordion lessons at the age of 8 or 9. Gil played in his first band called Os Desafinados when he was a student of business administration in Salvador. Influenced by the music of João Gilberto, he became interested in Bossa Nova and learnt to play guitar.

During the early 1960s, Gilberto Gil composed songs for commercials, recorded his first solo single (1962), learnt to know more important musicians and moved to São Paulo to work for Gessy-Lever, the Brazilian branch of Unilever. He worked for Unilever during the day and performed as an artist during the night. He met even more artists in São Paulo and in 1965 came his breakthrough when he sang Louvação and Eu Vim da Bahia in a television show presented by the singer Elis Regina. Gil released the album Louvação and was able to quit his job for Gessy-Lever.

Soon his music became more politically oriented. Gil played Domingo no Parque at the Festival da Record in 1967. At this same festival, Caetano Veloso played Alegria, Alegria . These two songs mark the beginning of the Tropicalismo or Tropicália movement. In 1968, Gilberto Gil was involved in the release of two important Tropicália albums: he released an LP of his own titled Gilberto Gil and he appeared on the album Tropicália ou panis et circensis together with Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, Nara Leão, Gal Costa and Rita Lee. This album is in fact the manifesto of the Tropicália movement. Because the movement was critical towards the Brazilian military dictatorship, Gilberto Gil was arrested in December 1968 and brought to prison. In February 1969, this confinement was reduced to home arrest and he was able to work again. He married in March and, after the dictatorship ‘invited’ him to leave the country, he was exiled to London together with Caetano Veloso and their wives. He continued his work in London where he played with Yes and Pink Floyd.

He was able to return to Brazil in 1972 and released the album Expresso 2222 . To date, Gilberto Gil has released more than 50 albums and has a proven ability to renew his style time after time. He released the album Eletracústico (2004) even after he became Brazil’s Minister of Culture.