Last week was Brazil’s version of MTV’s Video Music Awards, the VMB, and one of the most awaited moments of the night was a collaboration between Criolo, an up and coming hip hop artist from São Paulo (I’ve actually met him at a bar here in SP! He’s incredibly down to earth), and Caetano Veloso, a musician who’s been famous and making music since the Tropicalia era, in the 1970’s. The interesting thing about both artists is they talk about social problems in Brazil in their music, and the song they sang at the VMB was no exception. Written by Criolo and performed by both Não Existe Amor em SP is a beautiful song and gives you an idea of the social problems in city that can be reflected in many major cities around the world!
Here’s the video and lyrics below:
Não existe amor em SP
Love doesn’t exist in SP
Um labirinto mistico
A mystical labryinth
Onde os grafites gritam
Where grafitti yells
Não dá pra descrever
There’s no way to describe
Numa linda frase
In a beautiful sentence
De um postal tão doce
In a sweet postcard
Cuidado com doce
Be careful with sweet
São Paulo é um buquê
São Paulo is a bouquet
Buquês são flores mortas
Bouquets are dead flowers
Num lindo arranjo
In a beautiful arrangement
Arranjo lindo feito pra você
A beautiful arrangement made by you
Não existe amor em SP
Love doesn’t exist in SP
Os bares estão cheios de almas tão vazias
The bars are filled with empty souls
A ganância vibra, a vaidade excita
Greed vibrates, vanity excites
Devolva minha vida e morra afogada em seu próprio mar de fel
Give me my life back and drown in your own sea of gall
Aqui ninguém vai pro céu
Nobody here is going to heaven
Não precisa morrer pra ver Deus
You don’t have to die to see God
Não precisa sofrer pra saber o que é melhor pra você
You don’t have to suffer to know what’s best for you
Encontro duas nuvens em cada escombro, em cada esquina
I find two clouds in every debris, on every corner
