Sonic Sundays | Céu

Céu
Image | ariel martini, via Wikimedia Commons

Céu is an internationally-successful singer-songwriter from São Paulo, Brazil. Her lyrics range from extracting beauty from the seemingly mundane to commentaries on social issues important in Brazil and around the world on top of catchy beats infused with bossa nova, R&B, pop, reggae, jazz, electronica, and more. From her first album, CéU, released in 2005 to now, Céu has demonstrated her impressive range and ability to blend genres and constantly evolve her style. Born Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças, céu means “sky” or “cosmos” in Portuguese, and apt moniker for her sweet yet slightly raspy voice and the dreamy quality she manages to create in her songs, despite their stylistic differences. CéU is an album consisting of mostly bossa nova and jazz, and since then she has explores other genres and sounds, adding to her range and repertoire while echoing the sounds of that first album. In her most recent release, APKÁ!, she also confronts some controversial topics. For example, in “Forçar o Verão,” Céu says, “stop forcing the summer,” a metaphor to say, “stop pretending that everything is fine,” in response to dysfunctional aspects of Brazil’s government and political situation, including corruption, police violence, and massive environmental damage in the Amazon rainforest, exacerbated by the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro. Many of these issues are getting harder to ignore after the government’s slow and disjointed—and at the federal level, basically nonexistent—response to COVID-19, which has taken more than 520,000 lives in Brazil.

“Malêmolencia” was Céu’s breakout song on her first album and her most well-known. She sings, “menino bonhito”—pretty boy. Malêmolencia is one of the Brazilian words without a direct translation from Portuguese to English, and this one has different meanings in different contexts. Roughly, this word can refer to a calm or effortless demeanor or the swing that a samba dancer might have; in English it’s also often translated as “laziness” but in a positive sense. “Coreto,” off APKÁ!, leans into the more electronic and R&B-inspired aspects of Céu’s music, as her voice hits the high notes of the chorus effortlessly. “Varanda Suspensa” is from Céu’s fourth album, Tropix, which won a Latin Grammy for 2016. The lyrics describe the view from a balcony, changing throughout the day and into the night. “Pardo,” also from APKA!, was written by one of Brazil’s most beloved musicians and cultural figures, Caetano Veloso, about a love affair between two men of different races in Bahia. (Pardo is a term that refers to a mixed-race person.) In her 2020 interview with KEXP, Céu explains how while many like to think that racism is rare in Brazil, in reality that is not the case.

“Malêmolencia”

”Coreto”

“Varanda Suspensa” (Suspended balcony)

”Pardo”