Agnaldo Timóteo

Agnaldo Timóteo built his career around a repertory of romantic, old-fashioned, and decidedly kitschy material, pairing that formula with his vocal strengths to secure a lasting place among Brazil’s most celebrated singers. Releases appeared in Argentina, where he entered the hit parade, as well as in Mexico, the United States, and England, while his domestic popularity grew so strong that voters twice sent him to political office.

Born into poverty, he took on assorted manual work as a boy and eventually trained as a mechanic. In 1960 he relocated to Rio de Janeiro, where he accepted any available employment, among them a stint performing in a circus. A television appearance on producer and DJ Jair de Taumaturgo’s Hoje é Dia de Rock led to his debut LP, Surge um Astro, issued in 1965. Success followed at once; thereafter he released one album annually and toured the country to capacity crowds. In 1968 he recorded the Roberto Carlos–Erasmo Carlos composition “Meu Grito,” featured on the album Obrigado, Querida; the track became his signature hit, moving 600,000 copies. That same period saw the Mexican release of Sung By Brazilian Internationally Famous Agnaldo Timóteo and the American and British release of The Good Voice of Brazil.