Brasil, Brasil 1: Samba To Bossa (10 of 20)

Brasil, Brasil

The first time she came back from the United States and she sang, she was booed.
In many ways, she became a caricature.
People were saying she was Americanised and not authentic.
Miss Miranda...?
Miss Miranda?
REPLIES IN PORTUGUESE You're talking to Americans and I think it'd be better if you'd speak English.
Oh, I forgot.
Well, fellas, what I'd like to talk to you about is this...

Then she recorded a song about it and it's a masterpiece, saying, "They say that I came back Americanised."
It 's so...witty and graceful.
People see her like a funny comedian with a funny hat and they don't realise how wonderful she was as a singer and how important she was to the development of a certain style of Brazilian music which we call "samba sincopado", the syncopated samba.
She was great at that, the best.
Carmen Miranda came to symbolise Brazil for the outside world, though she had been criticised at home for becoming too Westernised.
Her light-hearted songs had little to do with the everyday struggles of many ordinary Brazilians.
They found a new hero in the northern countryside, inland from Recife.
O meu cabelo ja comeca pratiando Mas a sanfona ainda nao desafinou...
Luiz Gonzaga was the exponent of a new style, forro, that swept across Brazil in the 1940s from the remote northeast where his songs are still played by musicians who knew him.
FORRO DANCE RHYTHM Modestia a parte e que eu nao desafino Desde o tempo de menino Em Exu no meu sertao Cantava solto que nem cigarra vadia E e por isso que hoje em dia Ainda sou o rei do baiao Cantava solto que nem cigarra vadia E e por isso que hoje em dia Ainda sou o rei do baiao...
Onde reinou o baiao Se eu mereci minha coroa de rei Esta sempre eu honrei Foi a minha obrigacao...