Roberto Carlos, the “king” of romantic song, turns 80

Brazil has two kings who it proclaims loudly and to whom it surrenders equally in admiration. One of them is Pelé, the football star, and the other Roberto Carlos, the romantic and compulsive musical icon who continues to captivate audiences in Latin America and the world at the age of 80.

A biography that tells in detail and without sensational tone the life of the singer since childhood, through his dramas, triumphs, mysteries and obsessions, comes to light on Monday, April 19, the same day that the eighty-year-old artist celebrates his anniversary.

Recognized around the world for hits like ‘El cacharrito’, ‘Un gato en la sombra’, ‘Concavo y Convexo’, ‘Amada amor’ and ‘Yo solo quiero’ (one million friends), the multi-time Grammy winner he has had a life of luxury and happiness, but also of obstacles and deep sorrow.

The amputation of part of a leg when he was only six years old, the death of his three wives, the blindness of one of his sons, his “panic” in old age and obsessive compulsive disorder, for which he wears only white and blue, and which prompted him to veto some of his songs from his repertoire, are some examples.

Written by Brazilian journalist Jotabé Medeiros, who guided the artist’s career for 35 years, the biography called ‘That’s why this voice is so big’ (that’s why this giant voice is) It was launched by the publishing house Still, at the risk of being vetoed by the judiciary, as has already happened with the first work that told the life of the singer.

In 2007, at the artist’s request, the court ordered all copies of the biography “Roberto Carlos in Details” written by Brazilian historian Paulo César de Araujo to be withdrawn from circulation.

“That work was the only thing that opened up the historiography around him, because there are many books covering aspects of his career, but the only thing that covered his whole life was that book,” Medeiros explained to Efe on a telephone. interview.

The journalist added that if anyone else wanted to write a book of that style, they would have to go through the artist’s entire journey again. Since he had been following his career since 1986 and had been an eyewitness to several events – something that gave him “a certain advantage” – he decided to take up that challenge.

“For the issues of the past, I had to do a research where I went back, to the roots, to tell how Roberto became what he is. That is something that even Brazilians have not been able to explain properly until now,” he says. said.

Medeiros assures that he “does not” write “authorized biographies, but as a good reporter, he asked about the artist’s concept on some” controversial “topics before the book was published. Whether he read it or not is still a “mystery”.

In the book, the journalist immerses himself in the musical education of Roberto Carlos since childhood in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, a congregation in the state of Espíritu Santo, where he was born on April 19, 1941, going through his explosion as a rock star. Brazilian in the 1960s, until he became the ‘king of the romantic song’ a decade later.

“Then he made a cultural assimilation related to North American ‘black music’ (…), recorded funk and soul songs and as he reached the 70s, he made more orchestral music and also had others with a little environmental activism. , ”he explained to the author.

Later, Roberto Carlos started to create a “more erotic” genre with songs like “Cama y mesa” and “Cabalgada”, known in Brazil as his “motor stage”.

JULIO IGLESIAS, HIS ONLY MUSICAL RIVAL

“That takes a while and from there it moves on to its” more aggravated romantic phase where it will later find a single rival who is not Brazilian: Julio Iglesias, “said Medeiros.

According to the journalist, at some point in their careers, Roberto Carlos and Julio Iglesias had a dispute over “ territory, ” a battle they fought only from the stage and for which they never became friends.

One of the curious facts first revealed in this biography is the obligatory visit that Roberto Carlos made to the Apollo Theater in Harlem in the 1960s whenever he traveled to New York as it was considered the ‘temple ‘of black music, through which stars like James Brown or Ella Fitzgerald went through.

PROTECTED FROM PUBLIC LIFE

At the age of 80, Roberto Carlos has already announced that his next tour will be in 2022, and that a movie about his life will be released that same year, according to an interview sent to the media by his news agency, which included just a few questions from the more than 60 different journalists sent to him on the occasion of his birthday.

Secluded by the pandemic in the apartment from which he has also protected himself from public life since 1980, the Brazilian artist revealed that he has returned to compose.

Since he released his first album in 1961, he produced an album annually until 2005, all of them successful, and from 1965 he used the same strategy for his productions in Spanish. After that, he released only two productions, with four songs each in 2012 and 2017.

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