2022 - The Year of Festivals

Since the beginning of his career Gilberto Gil has had a close relationship with festivals. It was at the International Song Festival, on TV Rio, in 1966, that for the first time one of his songs appeared for the general public - "Minha Senhora", interpreted by Gal Costa.

Then "Ensaio Geral", performed by Elis Regina was presented at the 2nd festival of Brazilian Popular Music, of TV Record, in São Paulo.

And the following year, in 1967, at the 3rd Festival of the same broadcast TV, there was the historic performance with Os Mutantes, defending "Domingo no Parque", which came in second place and consecrated Gilberto Gil's career as a singer and composer.

From then on there were countless performances in Festivals - national and especially international, since every year since the late 70's he performs in the Festivals that take place usually during summers, in several countries in Europe.

So much so that already in 1978 he records a live album at the famous Montreux Festival, where he performed numerous times.

But, 2022 was a special year for Gil. He performed 20 times at Festivals.

After the Covid pandemic, the possibility of gathering large audiences returned with full force and, after 2 years of nostalgia, the Festivals are back with everything, both in Brazil and abroad.

Also in May, on the 28th, Gil performed again in Rio, at the Queremos Festival! The festival was in its 3rd edition (2018 and 2019 were the first two) and in a single day presented 12 different performances.

At the end of June, Gilberto Gil traveled to the Europe Tour with the whole family, and among the 17 shows performed, 11 were at Festivals. 

The series started right on June 26, Gil's 80th birthday, at Jazz Baltica, a world music festival that has been held since 1990 in cities on the Baltic Sea coast.

From there they returned to Northern Europe for a show in a theater in Berlin and immediately left again to the south, to Italy and Slovenia. The first stop was on July 9 in Perugia, at Umbria Jazz, where on the same day Marisa Monte was also performing.

In Slovenia, the event was the Jazz Festival Piran in the city of Portoroz, which took place between July 6 and 18 on various stages around the city.

In France, Gilberto Gil participated in four festivals - two in July and two in August, towards the end of the tour. On July 16 he was on stage at Jazz à Juan, in Antibes, which is already in its 61st edition and was the basis of inspiration for Claude Nobs, creator of the Montreux festival.

Two days later, Gil performed in Narbonne at Jazz à L'Hospitalet, a festival that also hosted Simple Minds, Nile Rodgers & Chic and several French artists. 

The other French festivals, already in August, were Jazz au Phare, at the Ilé de Ré, in Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, and the Festival Des Voix, in Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave, near Toulouse. 

Still in July, they had three other festivals on the Europe tour - one in Geneva, Switzerland, the Musiques en Été, which presented 25 concerts at La Grange Park on different stages. Gil performed on the Ella Fitzgerald stage.

Back in Brazil, which also saw a boom of festivals during 2022, Gil performed in early September at the biggest of them all, Rock In Rio, a festival where he has been a regular since the first edition (1985), including an edition in Portugal.

Before the Rio concert, Gil still participated in the iFood Festival, an event in São Paulo, where he sang with Luísa Sonza and Xamã.

Then it was time for Coala, on September 16, in São Paulo, replacing Alcione.
There was also Sensacional Celebra, in Belo Horizonte, on September 18, an offspring of the Sensacional Festival that happened in the first semester...