Caetano Veloso

Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (Brazilian Portuguese: [kajˈtɐnu emɐnuˈɛw viˈɐnɐ ˈtɛliz veˈlozu]; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, musician, writer, and political activist. In the late 1960s, he helped develop Tropicália, a Brazilian musical movement that combined Brazilian popular music with rock and roll and avant-garde influences. Along with Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, and Os Mutantes, he participated in the 1968 collaborative album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis, which became a musical manifesto of the movement.

Veloso's anti-authoritarian political stance brought him into conflict with the Brazilian military dictatorship, which censored and banned some of his songs. He and Gil were arrested and eventually released on condition that they leave Brazil. They lived in exile in London before Veloso returned to Brazil in 1972. His subsequent work combined international musical styles with Brazilian folkloric traditions, and his popularity expanded outside Brazil during the 1980s.

Veloso has continued to record and perform internationally. He has received nine Latin Grammy Awards and two Grammy Awards, and in 2012 was named the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year.