Gilberto Gil in the year of his 80th birthday

The year 2022 is historic for Gilberto Gil. Besides definitively leaving the isolation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the singer and composer from Bahia is getting ready to celebrate eight decades around the Sun. 

After a season returning to what, during the pandemic, was known as "the normal", the cycle brought several novelties for the singer from Bahia, who on June 26 will reach his 80th birthday on stage and becoming an immortal of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.  

The end of 2021 was marked by the celebration of Christmas festivities, with the Gil family gathered together. On social media, the event was illustrated by photos of the twin granddaughters Roma and Pina and a video of the singer with Flor Gil singing Boas Festas, by Assis Valente.

On December 27, the artist also remembered the imprisonment that led him into exile in 1968, and asked for solidarity and help for the Abrace A Bahia project when his home state suffered heavy rains, causing a series of tragedies in less privileged communities.

On 02/22/2022, in reference to the song Expresso 2222 , the Gil 80 Years label was launched, a brand present in the commemorative material for his birthday. "Let's go back to the past, with an eye to the future, living the present that is the present," he stated on Instagram.

Despite his busy schedule, Gil always reserves moments for family and friends. In the summer of 2022, as he usually does, he spent a season at his house in Salvador with his wife, Flora Gil, and received several visitors.

Besides their children and grandchildren, actress Regina Casé also dropped by. 

Grandson Francisco, aka Fran Gil, celebrated his birthday in Bahia in January with his father, actor Otávio Muller, his grandfather, and other family members. 

Members of the band BaianaSystem, Russo Passapusso and Roberto Barreto also went to Gil's house to take him a previously unreleased album by Antônio Carlos and Jocafi for a preview hearing. 

In Rio de Janeiro, former Brazilian president Lula, his wife Janja da Silva, and congresswoman Gleisi Hoffmann were some of the guests received by the singer and his wife in their apartment. 

With Lula, there was yet another meeting: Gil and Flora attended the politician's wedding to sociologist Janja da Silva, on May 18, 2022, in São Paulo.

The musician Jorge Ben, a musical reference who became Gil's musical partner, is a neighbor of the Bahian singer and constantly visits his friend's apartment for long afternoons of conversation. 

Godfathers of the children of journalists Andréia Sadi and André Rizek, Gil and Flora attended the one-year birthday of João and Pedro.

Always concerned with noble causes, in March, the singer from Bahia was part of the Global Campaign to raise awareness about chronic kidney disease (CKD) on National Kidney Day.

An initiative of the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, the project caught the attention of Gil, who in 2016 was diagnosed with CKD, which affects approximately 13 million Brazilians.

He used in his networks the hashtags #YourKidneysDon'tWait and #Don'tKeepWaiting to talk about the importance of prevention: "We should be alert and periodically see specialists to know how are our kidneys and our health in general," he said on Instagram.

Although the first show of the year was announced in January, the return of the singer from Bahia to the Brazilian stages was postponed. With the arrival of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the public had to wait a little longer to watch the presentation of the Gilberto Gil In Concert tour.

Originally scheduled for February 19, the show took place on April 29 and 30, at Concha Acústica do Teatro Castro Alves, in Salvador.

On the first day, the event was presented to the public alongside his children Bem Gil and José Gil, grandchildren João Gil and Flor Gil, and drummer Marcelo Costa. On the second day, it was presented only for members of the Union of Finance Servers of the State of Bahia (Sindsefaz). 

On May 17, Gil participated in the Roda Viva program. The interview was conducted by Evandro Fióti, Djamila Ribeiro, Amora Mautner, João Marcelo Bôscoli and Sarah Oliveira, and the host Vera Magalhães.   

Back to music festivals, in September, Gil will be honored throughout the seven days of Rock In Rio. In October, he will sing at Rock The Mountain, an event held in Itaipava, in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro.

In the year in which the Brazilian Week of Modern Art completes its centennial, Gilberto Gil is one of the stars of 2022, a show available on HBO Max, which featured presentations by several national music artists, celebrating 100 years of the milestone of Brazilian modernity.

The year 2022 is also marked by Gilberto Gil's inauguration into the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Elected in November 2021, the singer from Bahia is the second black man to receive the title of immortal by the institution.

Before his own inauguration and still in the process of fitting his uniform, the artist participates in the inauguration of the actress Fernanda Montenegro, whose ceremony took place on March 26, 2022.

Gilberto Gil was sworn in to the Brazilian Academy of Letters on April 8, at the Petit Trianon, in downtown Rio de Janeiro. The first musician to integrate the institution, he occupies the 20th chair, succeeding the journalist and lawyer Murilo Melo Filho.

"I have had great successes and joys in this life, but also many sorrows, the biggest and most painful, the loss of my son Pedro Gil. But I am not discouraged and one must always resist. Despite the politically dark times we live in, I bet on hope against the physical and moral darkness....

Let there be at least the flame of a candle until we reach the full moonlight," said the singer during his just over 30 minutes speech.

Always active, in the week following his inauguration, the artist gave the lecture Antropofagia e Tropicália during the Brasil Moderno conference cycle, in which the Brazilian Academy of Letters celebrated the Week of Modern Art.

With Caetano Veloso in the audience, Gilberto Gil spoke, reading a 16-page text that moved both the audience and himself, the speaker. 

Still on the topic of seminars, in February it was the premiere ofInfinito Brasileiro, com Gilberto Gil, a three-part conversation in which the artist talked about the construction of the Brazilian national identity at the Casa do Saber platform.

In honor of Gilberto Gil's 80th birthday, the project Carlos Malta e Pife Muderno em GIL brings together 40 tracks by the Bahian musician, divided into a double CD, and also presented in a show performed by the artists.

The album features the author of Expresso 2222 in eight songs and includes the unreleased Xamã Xapiri, a partnership with Carlos Malta inspired by native peoples. The first single was released in May 2022.

The event will be held at the Palácio das Artes in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, with the participation of Benki Ashaninka, political and shamanic representative of the Ashaninka people.

At 80 years of age, Gilberto Gil continues to be tireless. His work is always under construction and his involvement in several projects shows that the musician from Bahia still has a lot to teach all Brazilian people on how to live their own legacy.