São Paulo – Arab influence in Brazilian music will be the topic of an online event to be hosted by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) and the Embassy of Brazil in Lebanon, via the Brazil-Lebanon Cultural Center (BrasiLiban), next Thursday (26). The event will air in English on the BrasiLiban Facebook page, featuring a lecture by ABCC cultural director Silvia Antibas, and the musician Valtinho Cayuella playing songs that run the gamut from Brazilian folk music (MPB) to Carnaval-style marchinhas.
A historian, Antibas won the 2019 UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. She will discuss the history of Arab influence in Brazil, which far predates the early waves of Syrian and Lebanese immigration to Brazil during the 19th century. Antibas will delve into the coming of people from the Iberian Peninsula – the Portuguese and the Spanish – to Brazil. Their songs were informed by Moorish sounds as well as the Arabic prayers of enslaved Muslims.
The historian will explain how that amalgamation of African music, Arab influences, and specific instruments informed Brazilian rhythms like the samba, and how these rhythms got further input from incoming Middle East immigrants.
Cayuella will play songs including “O Bêbado e o Equilibrista,” by João Bosco, “Tocando em Frente,” by Almir Sater, and marchinhas like “Alalaô,” whose lyrics and music reference Arab elements.
The live stream is the first project to see the ABCC and BrasiLiban come together. It is an initiative of the Arab House, which the ABCC launched last October, and whose online events will cover aspects of culture and immigration.
Quick facts
The Arab Influence in Brazilian Music
November 26, 7 pm (Beirut time), 2 pm (Brasília time)
Find out more: https://www.facebook.com/events/670924410286541/
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
