Gilberto Gil's Other International Encounters

Gilberto Gil's international career started early in 1969, when he had to leave Brazil and move to the UK following his imprisonment under the military dictatorship in December 1968.

This period of exile led Gil to engage more fully with music from other countries. 

His cowriting partner Caetano Veloso—who joined him in prison and in exile—spent some of his time in London feeling depressed, but Gil used the experience to learn more about the local culture. They returned home in 1972, but Gil went on to have regular contact with artists from all over the world.

From concerts in the US to recording in Jamaica, he would experience many different musical interactions.

Throughout his career, Gilberto Gil has had the chance to record cover versions of some classics, as well as new hits from the world of music. One song he chose to cover was Stevie Wonder's I Just Called To Say I Love You, which became Só Chamei Porque Te Amo in Portuguese. 

Gil also reworked Italian singer Laura Pausini's hit Seamisai, with his Portuguese version Sei Que Me Amavas.

Sting once came to Brazil and, when he left, took the Kayapo tribal chief Raoni Metuktire with him to take his fight for indigenous people and the Amazon Rainforest around the world.

Artists had started getting involved in environmental activism in the early 1990s. In March 1991, Sting, who was lead singer of The Police, joined forces with Elton John, Gilberto Gil, the singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso, and the Brazilian conductor Tom Jobim.

Gilberto Gil has always been very interested in literature and cinema, so no wonder it was a dream come true when he met Federico Fellini—a filmmaker whose career Gil had followed closely

Gil met Fellini in his hometown Rimini, on the Adriatic coast in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region. 

Followed by his wife Flora Gil the singer and song writer participated together with the actress Sônia Braga and the producer Nelson Motta of the Italian TV show Blitz to talk about Brazilian music.

Two days before the shooting, the famous host Gianni Minà orgnized a meeting between his friend Federico Fellini close to the place where the show took place, the  Grand Hotel di Rimini.

There, Fellini's assistants, Norma Giacchero and Fiammetta Profili, were also lodged and participated in the show too. The movie director is author of La Dolce Vita and Satyricon.

In January 1985, the American singer-songwriter James Taylor arrived in Rio de Janeiro to perform at the first edition of what would become Brazil's biggest music festival, Rock in Rio.

Gilberto Gil was to perform at the same festival and, on learning that he would be on stage the same day as the writer of the hit song You've Got a Friend and the reference for mixing country-gospel-rock, he went to visit him in his dressing room.

On January 13, the two artists performed their music in front of 250,000 people. After their shows, it was Gil who welcomed Taylor into his dressing room.