Gil: "No more wondering who I am but rather why I am"

A performer who is also a philosopher, politician, and, as he himself points out, a citizenship addict who is always available for any cause. The path that Gil's career has taken since he first burst onto the popular Brazilian music scene in the mid 1960s clearly shows all the potential he had. 

In 1987, in his first public office as the head of the Fundação Gregório de Mattos in Salvador—a role equivalent to a culture secretary—Gilberto Gil was in a position where he could further his ideas on Blackness and put them into practice.

As well as his ideas on Afro-descendant culture, which was so widespread in the region where he was born and grew up and which he had definitively adopted in 1977 when he spent time in Africa before releasing his album Refavela .

In 1988, the singer-songwriter announced his pre-candidacy for mayor of Salvador. He would later drop out of the race in order to run instead for the city council. He won that seat and, over the next four years, he would win praise for the way he carried out the role.

Ever since, he has juggled his artistic career with his political roles and activism activities, such as setting up the environmental NGO Fundação OndAzul in the 1990s. 

However, when he became culture minister in 2003, he had to cut back drastically on his musical activities. "My artistic work is taking a break," he said at the time. 

In Gil's eyes, the ministry's top priority was to encourage culture by providing support and stimulus for popular and folklore events. 

Some of his actions are still having an impact today, including his contributions to the discussions on new copyright legislation and his setting up of agencies, such as municipal culture councils and Pontos de Cultura (Cultural Hotspots), to represent civil society.

In the art of songwriting, the song demands total reverence, leaving the songwriter a mere passenger, with very little say in the direction the song chooses to take.

His words are being compiled as if in a movie, with different and often blurry parts arranged into a final work that tells the story of an admirable man, whose ideas and attitudes reveal huge wisdom.