Aquarela do Brasil

Background and composition

Ary Barroso wrote "Aquarela do Brasil" in early 1939 during a rainy night that kept him indoors. The title references watercolor painting, alluding to the rain. That same night, before the rain stopped, he also wrote "Três lágrimas".

Barroso told an interviewer he wanted to free samba from life's tragedies and the overused sensual scenario, feeling the greatness and wealth of his land. He described the first chords as vibrant and the beat as evoking the sound of rain on syncopated tambourins. He said the rest came naturally, music and lyrics together, and that he felt like a different person after finishing the song.

Release and reception

Before it was ever recorded, "Aquarela do Brasil" (first called "Aquarela brasileira") was performed by baritone Cândido Botelho at a benefit concert hosted by Brazil's First Lady. Francisco de Morais Alves finally cut the record with Radamés Gnattali's orchestra for Odeon in August 1939. Araci Cortes also made a version, but despite her fame, the song flopped.

It only caught on after Walt Disney's 1942 film Saludos Amigos featured it, sung by Aloísio de Oliveira. That made it the first Brazilian song to get over a million US radio plays, leading to an English lyric by Bob Russell. Rolling Stone Brazil later ranked it the 12th greatest Brazilian song.

Controversy

The song's exaltation of Brazil's qualities created the samba-exaltação genre, which many saw as favorable to Getúlio Vargas's dictatorship, drawing criticism that Barroso had prostrated himself to the regime. The Barroso family denies this, noting he wrote the anti-Nazi song "Salada Mista", recorded by Carmen Miranda in October 1938. Vargas, though not a fascist, was sympathetic to such regimes in his early presidency. The Department of Press and Propaganda wanted to censor the line "terra do samba e do pandeiro" as derogatory, but Barroso persuaded them to keep it.

Critics also objected to obscure expressions like "inzoneiro", "merencória", and "trigueiro", and to redundant phrases such as "meu Brasil brasileiro". Barroso defended these as poetic effects inseparable from the composition. On the original recording, Alves sang "mulato risoneiro" instead of "inzoneiro" because he could not read Barroso's illegible handwriting.

Notable recordings

In 1943, Xavier Cugat's version reached number two on the Best Sellers List and number nine on the Harlem Hit Parade. Django Reinhardt recorded "Brazil" three times between 1947 and 1953. Frank Sinatra recorded it for his 1957 album Come Fly With Me, followed by Bing Crosby, Ray Conniff, and Paul Anka. During the Brazilian military dictatorship, Elis Regina performed a dark version with a chorus of men reproducing Native Brazilian chants.

In 1975, The Ritchie Family's disco version spent seven weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and reached number eleven Pop. Antônio Carlos Jobim, Erasmo Carlos, João Gilberto (with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia), Gal Costa, and Simone also recorded versions. The song featured prominently in Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil, named after it; Geoff Muldaur recorded it for the soundtrack, and parts were incorporated into Michael Kamen's orchestral score, including a Kate Bush version.

In the 1990s, Harry Belafonte and Dionne Warwick recorded it. Daniela Mercury performed the most recent Brazilian cover at the closing of the opening ceremony of the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2007. In 2009, the Recording Academy added Jimmy Dorsey's 1942 recording—the first to use Bob Russell's English lyrics, sung by Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell—to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Also in 2009, Beirut performed the song for their live DVD.

ITV used a cover by Thiago Thomé as the theme for its 2014 FIFA World Cup coverage; during the tournament's opening ceremony, Claudia Leitte sang the first verses before being joined by Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez for "We Are One (Ole Ola)".