Minister + artist = Gilberto Gil, the “ministartist”

“He had a very heavy agenda as a minister. But, since he already had experience touring, he was used to travelling often. And there were many official travels…

“… When he was in Brasília, he got to the Ministry at about nine in the morning and left at ten in the night, because he had meetings with aids, secretaries, every area, to get up to date with what was happening…

“… During the weekends, he still managed to do concerts.”
Maria Gil, producer and Gilberto Gil’s daughter

Gilberto Gil confesses that former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbatchov was the great inspiration for him to make himself available for public life. He said this to Gorbatchov himself when he met him once in Washington, United States.

In adapting Soviet ideals of a minimally democratic nation state with his own ideals of accessible citizenship that the singer and songwriter asked then mayor of Salvador, Mário Kertész, to become part of his administration.

And so, already a renowned artist, he entered politics in 1987, becoming president of the Gregório de Mattos Foundation—an institution responsible for the administration of cultural spaces in Salvador.

Political life would only resume in 1995, when he joined the board of Comunidade Solidária [Solidary Community], a social project of the administration of then president Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

Active in environmental causes, he was asked to be environment minister after FHC’s re-election in 1998. But it was only in 2002 that Gilberto Gil agreed to accept a ministry: the Ministry of Culture, during the first administration of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.  

His condition for accepting the invitation was the continuity of his artistic career. Always active, he declared to president Lula that he didn’t want to be a symbolic figure within his board of ministers; he effectively wanted to do things for culture.

Aware of the need for a common denominator for MinC’s diversity, the musician, in his already characteristic humility, defined as one of his first activities a unifying debate to create a basic understanding: the meaning of the term “public policy.” 

Former executive secretary Juca Ferreira recalls that it was a “noisy” Ministry, because the profusion of ideas was so large. The minister's daughter, producer Maria Gil, recalls it wasn’t unusual for the minister to work for more than twelve hours in his office.

As soon as he took office, the singer and songwriter sought guidance from the Ministry of Culture’s legal department so that his artistic career would not interfere with that of public administrator. 

His concerts were submitted to the Union’s Comptroller General so that the concomitance of the careers took place on legal bases. He couldn’t appear at events with public funding—such as New Year’s Eve concerts and traditional street parties that happen in June all over Brazil.

His international tours were held during ministerial holidays and, whenever he was hired for a concert that could also be used for a local political agenda, he saved public money.

His simplicity did not prevent him from recognizing himself as an “icon of the nation’s cultural matrix,” as he declared in 2009 to the periodical Políticas Culturais em Revista. He exercised his two roles with mastery. 

Right in his first year in office, at the Conference on Social Policies in Brazil and Mozambique, he interacted with the country’s National Dance Company during an official trip to the African continent.

Two months later, at the Museum of the Republic in Rio de Janeiro, during the launch of the National Program of Republican Culture and Brazilianness, he danced with the Alabe FunFun Orchestra—with songs in praise of African orixas and in honor of Afro-Brazilian ancestry.

As minister, he took part in the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona, debating peace, sustainable development, and cultural diversity. The year before, he had participated as a singer, performing for free at the event, which took place in São Paulo.

The digital world—whose fascination had already been expressed in many of his songs, such as “Futurível,” “Cérebro eletrônico,” “Cibernética,” “Parabolicamará,” and “Pela internet”—not infrequently confirmed the expression "ministartist," as he dubbed himself in 2004 to the newspaper Correio da Bahia.

In the same year, during the 5th International Free Software Forum, he performed his Liberdade Digital [Digital Freedom] concert and also participated in a debate about Creative Commons.

The sensitive listening of the artist facilitated connections in Brasília, in the “nooks” of the country, and with international networks. He created partnerships with other ministries, bringing to politics an attentive look to all beings.

During a visit to Senegal with president Lula in April 2005, he performed “La Lune de Gorée,” a capella his composition in partnership with Brazilian poet and musician José Carlos Capinan.

A few days later, he wrote “La Renaissance Africaine,” his first song since taking over the Ministry of Culture.

Back then, he told newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that the idea of writing that anthem was presented to him by the organization of the Black Art Festival, which would take place in the country the following year: “They asked me to do the lyrics. I did the lyrics. I’m throwing the music in for free.” 

In the same year, he was invited by then mayor of Paris, Hélène Mandroux, to take Brazilian music to the opening of the Comédie du Livre festival, the Year of Brazil in France.

At the Culture Cup launch in Germany, Gilberto Gil proposed adding cultural programs to the 2006 World Cup in Brazil and in the host country. 

In December 2005, he had already written the song “Balé de Berlim” for the Brazilian national team and, in May of the following year, he performed in the auditorium of the House of World Cultures in Berlin, with tickets sold out before the opening of the sale. 

The next day, he gave a free concert on the lawn outside the House for those who hadn’t been able to see him the day before.

Part of the audience there danced around the security guards and on the stage. Not a problem for the musician. “Long live all forms of expression of the culture of this people of planet Earth,” he had declared at the beginning of his performance.  

In 2006, his democratic style earned him the title of UNESCO Artist for Peace, a recognition by the entity to the personalities who stand out in the promotion of culture in favor of peace.

Despite having released the albums Eletracústico (2004), Gil Luminoso (2006), and Banda Larga Cordel (2008) during his MinC mandate, he did not travel with his guitar when he was in public office. 

But there was no shortage of people who could get him one, aiming for a “jam” after he fulfilled his schedule, for instance during the reinauguration of the Cássia Eller Room at the National Theater in Brasília or after one of his masterclasses at Brazilian public universities.  

Following the ministerial agenda at the Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora, held in Salvador in 2006, he was called by African singer Angélique Kidjo to perform “Refavela” together.

The song by Gil was inspired in part by a visit to the Black Art and Culture Festival in Nigeria in 1977, when he saw a “suburban” landscape very familiar to Salvador’s housing complexes which later would become slums, or favelas.

One of the many occasions when he demonstrated his ministerial commitment was his priority was the appointment of Luiz Fernando Almeida as president of the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN).

The ceremony took place on the same day he was awarded his second Grammy (for best world music record) in the United States, for his work Eletracústico in 2006.

Gilberto Gil, who already projected Brazil through his musicality, proved to be a cultural powerhouse. “When Gilberto Gil spoke, it was a charm. His symbolic strength was impressive,” recalls Juca Ferreira.

His name, his activism, and his gift for speaking made him effectively an agent of Brazilian culture, someone who opened doors to the appreciation of the various shades of Brazilian art and knowledge.

In some agendas, Gilberto Gil had to reconcile his artist side of writing music with that of political authority; one example was the agenda about copyright flexibility and the dissatisfaction by part of his peers with changes announced to the Law for Cultural Incentive.

With serenity, to face these issues he used the same policy that was the mark of his public administration: dialogue. He wanted to update the Brazilian Copyright Law.

And, with that, he would seek out a better distribution of resources coming from the Rouanet Law, develop new business models on a digital basis, and democratize access to culture; for this, he led meetings, seminars, and workshops to debate these issues.

It was like this, “gilbertigiliando” - variation of the expression coined by himself -, that he sought a harmonious construction with those who opposed his modus operandi, creating a management that united modernity and what was traditionally constituted in terms of public policy. 

Gil lived his five and a half years as head of MinC intertwining his political side with his already established artistic history. There was no lack of detractors, and Maria Gil recalls that at the beginning of the management people took bets on how much time the musician would last at head of Ministry.

But each piece of news about attitudes of this kind only nourished his desire to turn the Ministry of Culture into a stage for concrete actions. He remained in office during president Lula’s second term, though he thought he had already made his contribution to the country’s culture.

In 2007, after surgery to remove a polyp on his right vocal cord, the doctors recommended he spare his voice, over which he had ample command and technique on stage, but which was subject to many modulations in the speeches and hearings of the ministerial agenda.

But it was after returning from the Banda Larga Cordel international tour that he left, on July 30th, 2008, his legacy to the country in the hands of his successor and right-hand man Juca Ferreira, having accomplished what he had set out to do in his inauguration speech:  

To bring the Ministry of Culture closer to the daily lives of Brazilians. During his time, he nobly fulfilled his mission as minister, musician, and, before both, a national citizen.