Onde é que está o Capital

At the beginning of the 1980s, waves of music of dubious quality proliferated in Portuguese rock music, with a few exceptions. Most of the lyrics at the time were popular and easy to understand, but they had very little of a rock feel to them, since most of them were absolutely pop!

Amidst the rubble of quality music or music similar to Zumba no Caneco, there wasn't a single song that addressed the country's economic/social situation, so we all felt like we were in la la land, out of touch with reality and intoxicated with a feeling of; tomorrow we'll see.

In a conversation, one of many I had with Celino Bosta, better known as Belino Costa, and sometimes Joao Belo, a journalist from Sete, I came up with the idea of doing something different, a lyric whose topic was more realistic, because the so-called Portuguese rock of the time often only dealt with banalities. Added to this was the fact that some professionals in the press at the time said that I only sang in English and there were doubts about my vocal ability to sing in the language of Camões.

Belino showed me Capital, a theme I found interesting and I moulded it to give it musicality. The fire was out and it was irreversible. I spoke to my partner at the time, the notorious Filipe Mendes and Transatlântico, who were sailing in dry waters at the time, and we published the song ‘Onde é que está o Capital’, which reached the top of the national charts in 1982 and achieved an unusual popularity in my career. A resounding success!

Today, 41 years on, the song has a current character, and so the idea is to return with new arrangements and a new spirit and ask who has the capital.