Carlos, Roberto (1943–)

Roberto Carlos (b. 1943), Brazilian pop singer and songwriter. Carlos has been one of Latin America's most popular recording artists throughout his career. He started out singing rock and roll, cowriting songs with Erasmo Carlos (no relation), and gained fame singing the 1963 hits "Calembeque" and "Splish Splash" (a cover of the American hit). In 1965, he and Erasmo led the jovem guarda movement, a post-Bossa-Nova manifestation of domestic rock by several young Brazilian musicians. Roberto and Erasmo hosted the "Jovem Guarda" show on the TV Record network from 1965 to 1968, and cowrote hit songs like "Parei na contramão" (I Parked the Wrong Way), "É proibido fumar" (No Smoking), and "Garota do baile" (Dance Girl).

In the 1970s, Roberto transformed himself into a romantic interpreter of ballads and boleros, although he and Erasmo continued their songwriting partnership. During that decade, Roberto was the top-selling recording artist in Brazil, selling an annual average of one million records (quadruple-platinum) with each new album. With recordings frequently hitting the top ten in numerous Latin American and European countries, he also became an international star. In the 1980s, Carlos recorded hits in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English, but was supplanted as Brazil's number-one recording artist in the late 1980s by the children's music singer Xuxa. After his wife's death in 1999, Carlos tried to keep on with his career, producing the album Amor sem limite but then broke his contract with Sony due to hardship. However, he went on to win the 2005 Latin Grammy for Best Romantic Album

See alsoMusic: Popular Music and Dancexml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rock, a mú sica do século XX, edited by Pedro Paulo Popovic Consultores Editorias Ltda. (1983).

Rita Caú rio, ed., Brasil Musical (1988).

Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha, The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil (1991).

Additional Bibliography

Alves Júnior, Carlos. Rock Brasil: O livro. São Paulo: Editora Esfera, 2003.

Araújo, Paulo Cesar. Roberto Carlos em detalhes. São Paulo: Planeta, 2006.

                                   Chris McGowan