A night in the kingdom of Belo

Belo presents the show 'Belo in concert' at Vivo Rio last night, Wednesday, June 10th
Rodrigo Goffredo
♫ FIRST PERSON OF THE SINGULAR
♬ While artists, journalists and Brazilian music professionals gathered at the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro last night, June 10th, on account of the 33rd edition of the Brazilian Music Awards, I left for the Vivo Rio house, located close to the century-old Rio theater, in the same central area of the city of Rio de Janeiro (RJ).
The reason for the dissent was to see a Belo show for the first time in almost 40 years of continuous music journalism. No, I had never seen Belo in a show, although I like the singer from São Paulo and recognize the great influence of Belo's voice on many vocalists in pagode groups today.
With touches of soul and R&B in his voice, Belo in a certain way inaugurated in the 1990s, as lead singer of the group Soweto, a school of samba singing, specifically romantic pagode, a term created to classify the music that identifies Marcelo Pires Vieira in the Brazilian pop universe.
I also admire Belo's ability to have been reborn artistically and turned things around. The singer made a mistake, paid dearly for his mistake, won back the public and even opened new fronts of work. Parallel to his singing career, Belo became an actor. He has just written his first soap opera, "Três Graças", winning over the public, critics and colleagues such as Marcos Palmeira. Quite an achievement, celebrated by the artist on the stage at Vivo Rio in the middle of the "Belo in concert" show.
In addition to his voice full of feeling, Belo has charisma and knows how to keep the audience in his hands when he is on stage
Rodrigo Goffredo
Allocated at a table located at the edge of the stage, I witnessed what I already imagined. In addition to his voice, Belo has a star, charm, charisma and, on top of that, he brings feeling to his singing. For all this, the pagode star had the audience in his hands as soon as he appeared on the stage at Vivo Rio in front of an imposing virtual stage - 40 minutes late! - and sang "Perfume".
And take romantic pagoda! All sung in chorus by the audience. I admit that I have restrictions on Belo's repertoire. I find it repetitive in form and theme. But, from what I saw yesterday, the problem is mine alone. Belo's audience loves pagodas like "This way is bad for me" and "I need to love you".
And the singer, aware that he had the public as his subject, reigned supreme, played charm, interacted with the four dancers and even made fun of the fact that he had recently been criticized for singing the "Brazilian National Anthem" with Alcione. "Do you want to hear the anthem?", he asked the audience and then, mischievously, said that he was referring to the "anthem of the pagode", the title that the singer gives to the song "Reinventar".
Fortunately, for me, "Belo in concert" is a show in which the singer also voices other people's hits, like a crooner.
As a crooner, Belo explored the universe of popular pop in the 1980s, singing hits by Fábio Jr. (" Quando gira o mundo " and "Caça e Caçador"), Guilherme Arantes ("Um dia, um adeus", ballad heard in a minimalist number, almost a cappella, with just a few keyboard chords), Ritchie ("Transas") and Roupa Nova ("The trip"), among other names.
It happened until "Explode Coração", a Gonzaguinha (1945 - 1991) consecrated by Maria Bethânia in 1978, when Belo was just a four-year-old boy on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo (SP). But Belo always returned to his own repertoire. Because the public really wanted to hear Belo singing Belo and Soweto songs.
After a night in the kingdom of Belo, I can say that I understand the singer's long-lasting success. Belo has a star, he has a voice, he has that indefinable something more and, what's more, as he himself sings in the frenetic pagodeira version of "Perfect Love", what has passed... has passed...
Belo sings hits by Fábio Jr. and Roupa Nova among romantic pagodas from his own repertoire in the show 'Belo in concert'
Rodrigo Goffredo

Source: G1