Chico Buarque

Biography

Francisco Buarque de Hollanda OMC • ComIH (born 19 June 1944), popularly known as Chico Buarque (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʃikʊ buˈahki]), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, playwright, writer, and poet. He is best known for his music, which often includes social, economic, and cultural reflections on Brazil.

The firstborn son of Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda, Buarque lived at several locations throughout his childhood, though mostly in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Rome. He wrote and studied literature as a child and found music through the bossa nova compositions of Tom Jobim and João Gilberto. He performed as a singer and guitarist in the 1960s as well as writing a play that was deemed dangerous by the Brazilian military dictatorship of the time. Buarque, along with several Tropicalist and MPB musicians, was threatened by the Brazilian military government and eventually left Brazil for Italy in 1969. However, he came back to Brazil in 1970 and continued to record, perform, and write, though much of his material was suppressed by government censors. He released several more albums in the 1980s and published three novels in the 1990s and 2000s.

In 2019, Buarque was awarded the Camões Prize, the most important prize for literature in the Portuguese language. However, the awarding of the prize was delayed by four years due to actions by Jair Bolsonaro, but Buarque received it in April 2023. He has also won eleven Brazilian Music Awards, the most important prize for Brazilian music.

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