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Nelson Goncalves
Biography
With his potent vocal gift and sentimental but talented interpretations, Nelson Gonçalves became hugely popular both as a singer and a composer (in dubious partnerships with Adelino Moreira). His professional career spanned from 1937 to 1997 and during that time he recorded over 120 LPs and 20 CDs, selling over 15 million copies of his albums, winning 15 platinum and 41 gold records. Gonçalves is, without doubt, one of the most important Brazilian singers. Gonçalves had a hard childhood, and when he was still a child, he started to work as a waiter, coming to know the nightlife in the humble boroughs of São Paulo. That experience would be instrumental later when he became a sort of spokesperson for the prostitutes, their clients, and all workers and characters involved in that scene. Singing the hard life of those people through overly emotional songs, lyrics, and renditions, electing love dramas and histories of treason and tragedies as main themes, he found his way to the hearts of both high and middle class individuals. At 19 Gonçalves became a singer at Rádio Tupi (São Paulo), evidencing a strong influence by Orlando Silva, soon substituted by a style based in the quasi-operatic interpretations of Vicente Celestino and Francisco Alves.
Selected Discography