Raimundo Fagner will be 73 this Friday when he also releases the album “Meu Parceiro Belchior”. Of the 12 tracks on the new project, eight are partnerships with Belchior, who died five years ago. In conversation with sheethe explains that he wanted other participations that ultimately did not take place and surprises by citing Caetano Veloso, a historical dissatisfaction.
“My dream was to one day sing with Caetano Veloso if he agrees so we can undo this story. He was an artist that we wanted to invite for the record. It would be fantastic for him to take part if it weren’t so offensive to him,” he says.
The conflict with Caetano dates back to the early 1970s, when the affirmation of the People of Ceará, as Fagner and his associates became known, in the Brazilian music scene involved a confrontation with the established Tropicalists. Belchior, a representative of the group, even put Caetano in a verse of “Apenas um Rapaz LatinoAmericano” and called him “an old composer from Bahia”.
Some encounters between Caetano and Fagner did not go well at the time, and since then, allusions in interviews have often been accompanied by provocations. In 2005, for example, Fagner told Veja magazine that Caetano had “a certain ego problem”. The following year, in TV Globo’s Fantástico, the Bahian called the Ceará local “a beast”.
Fagner attributes the disagreements that have accumulated throughout his life to a certain lack of skill. He recalls always having a critical eye, like Belchior, but his partner was “better prepared”.
“He left it to poetry. I went into another field. He was well prepared for this poetic confrontation, this critical dialogue. I became the flesh of a lion. I opened my mouth, there was a thump.”
The new album brings more guests together. Amelinha, witness and participant in the beginning of the story of Belchior and Fagner, sings in “Bolero in Portuguese”. Frejat duets with Fagner in “Contramão”. The idea of his compatriot Xand Avião’s participation in “Noves Fora”, a mix of contemporary forró and samba rock, came about when they met at a live performance.