Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso: the story of a friendship

A friendship was born that would take them from performing at Salvador's Vila Velha Theater (Teatro Vila Velha) to leaving for the big cities in the Southeast, starting the Tropicália movement, and sharing the experience of exile in London, as well as numerous joint projects. 

Caetano Veloso was the producer of Gil's first concert in Salvador, in 1965, entitled Inventário. That night, a paper with the lyrics, signed by Gil, remained in history because of an unprecedented song called Trovoada, whose melody was forgotten by both of them.

Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso moved to southeastern Brazil at more or less the same time. Caetano made the move to be with his sister, Maria Bethânia, who was performing at Rio de Janeiro's Opinion Theater (Teatro Opinião) in 1965. 

That same year, Gil moved to São Paulo to start work at the Gessy Lever company. The following year, the pair started performing at song festivals put on by Brazilian TV stations.

Although not exactly planned, the pair ended up founding the most revolutionary movement in the history of Brazilian music: Tropicália.

It started out as them just meeting up with other musicians and poets to write songs, talk, and create a new sound. After realizing that together they could create something different, they took their innovative ideas to the stages of music festivals, which had a huge audience.

The influences from avant-garde artistic movements, and Brazilian and foreign pop culture, produced a mixture of traditional Brazilian culture and esthetic innovations. This new style would soon capture the whole country's attention, and Caetano and Gil became known as "tropicalistas".

Alongside Gal Costa, they went on to have their own TV show called Divino Maravilhoso, which was also the title of one of Caetano's songs. 

However, it only remained on air for three months because the improvised show proved too shocking for the TV Tupi directors, who feared a reaction from the military regime's censors.

Having apparently scandalized the military during their performances at TV Globo's International Song Festival (Festival Internacional da Canção) in 1968, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso were arrested.

Gil performed Questão de Ordem on stage with the Argentinian rock band Beat Boys, and Caetano Veloso sang É Proibido Proibir with the group Os Mutantes.

At Sucata, Caetano, Gil and Mutantes took risks: on the stage, there was a work by the artist Hélio Oiticica with the image of the criminal Cara de Cavalo (executed by the police death squad) and the inscription: "Be marginal, be a hero" .

The military heard about this “flag” along with rumors that the national anthem had been sung profanely. The military got the news. On December 27, the two were awakened and taken in a van for two months in prison.

Caetano and Gil were also forced to stay under house arrest in Salvador. After a negotiation, they planned an exile in Europe. To raise funds for the move to England, the two presented, in Salvador, the concert which would become known as Barra 69 after the album's release in 1972.

Gil and his then wife, Sandra Gadelha, as well as Caetano and his wife, Dedé Gadelha, stayed in London until 1972, when they finally managed to negotiate the return to their country.

In 1973, the two participated in the Phono 73 festival, organized by the record label Phonogram and held in São Paulo.

When they returned to Brazil in 1972, Gil and Caetano threw themselves into new projects. The military dictatorship was still determining which songs could be recorded and performed, but the pair continued to pursue their careers.

In 1976, they joined the Bahian vocalists Gal Costa and Maria Bethânia to stage the Doces Bárbaros show, which they later took on tour around Brazil.

Over the following years, it became normal to see Gilberto Gil performing in a Caetano Veloso concert, and to see Caetano performing in one of Gil's shows. During the tours for three of Gil's most important albums—Refazenda, Refavela, and Realce—Caetano was always there, and he was also behind the scenes on other shows, such as Luar.

In 1988, Gil decided to run for Salvador's City Council (Câmara Municipal) as the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) candidate. Caetano was one of the performers at a concert rally held in the Bahian capital during the campaign, which saw Gil elected councillor with the largest number of votes.

In 1991, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso joined Elton John, Sting (lead singer of British band The Police), and the Brazilian conductor and bossa nova star Tom Jobim in New York.

They put on a benefit concert at New York's Carnegie Hall to raise funds for the Fundação Mata Virgem (Virgin Forest Foundation). Once again, Gil and Caetano were proving to be inseparable, this time both in music and environmental activism. 

Here they were again, doing something together.    

In 2015, Gil and Caetano got together on a tour that celebrated 50 years of their friendship: Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música was a concert performed around the world and became an album.

In 1993, Gil and Caetano decided to celebrate their 30-year friendship and the 26th anniversary of the Tropicália movement by recording the Tropicália 2 album.

A couple of concerts were also staged to promote Tropicália 2 album, released by PolyGram. The first was in a square in Rio de Janeiro called Praça da Apoteose, on September 25, and the second was at the Anhembi Arts and Culture Center (Pólo de Arte e Cultura do Anhembi) in São Paulo, on October 2.

On stage, they were as in tune as when they first were starting out.

Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso are close friends; best buddies; friends for life. The beautiful love story between these two Bahians has already celebrated its golden anniversary and there is still a lot more to come.

The pair have become two of the biggest names in the world of music, both in Brazil and on other continents. With some of the songs they cowrote, including Panis et Circenses, they will leave a huge legacy to Brazilian music.