Paulo Ricardo fronted the Brazilian pop/rock group RPM during its period of peak commercial dominance. His departure in 1989 coincided with the release of his debut solo album, Paulo Ricardo. Six further solo albums followed before 2000, after which he embraced romantic material and scored substantial success throughout Latin America with the internationally distributed A Cruz e a Espada.
Already at age five he appeared on Augusto César Vanucci’s amateur showcase and received repeated return invitations. The family’s relocation to São Paulo SP when he turned fourteen introduced him to Luís Schiavon, who later served as RPM’s keyboardist.
In 1980 Ricardo began journalism studies at the University of São Paulo and soon wrote rock criticism for Canja, Música, and Som Três. Toward year’s end he and Schiavon began performing together, yet their pop style struggled to match the popularity then enjoyed by punk and new wave. Frustrated, he followed girlfriend Eloá Ramos Chouzal to France and subsequently to London, England, where correspondence with Schiavon rekindled his interest in forming a band and led him to compose new material.
Back in Brazil during 1983, as pop/rock finally proved commercially viable, the pair recorded a demo that attracted no label interest. They enlisted guitarist Fernando Deluqui and drummer Júnior, the latter replaced by P.A. Pagni in January 1985, and thereby launched RPM.
After the band’s 1989 split, Ricardo rebuilt his career by playing to taped backing tracks in small, little-known clubs, an effort greatly supported by musical partner and producer Liminha. Roberto Carlos subsequently chose him as a preferred vocalist for a televised tribute marking the singer’s fiftieth birthday.
Hoping to reassemble RPM, Ricardo performed with Pagni and Deluqui at Rock in Rio II; the addition of Marquinho Costa and Franco Júnior produced the 1993 PolyGram album Paulo Ricardo e RPM, which failed to sustain momentum and prompted another dissolution in 1995. The following year he issued the solo album Rock Popular Brasileiro, which sold nearly 100,000 copies.
