Music

Brazil has a reputation for being in love with music, a place where everyone dances and has a good time, all the time. Many regions have strong traditions and distinctive styles of music and dance – samba, axé, forró (please don't search for "bate com a bunda" at this point). Basically, it's not just samba and carneval.

Although Palmas, given its young age, lacks such musical identity, music remains important. Live music is common, in bars and restaurants, and even churches, and people are often dancing on the street outside restaurants. We went to a blues bar recently and watched a rock band. I was stood up with a drink in each hand, there were alternative people hanging out and pictures of Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix on the wall. It felt, briefly, like I was back in England.

Chico Cesar

Aside from that rare experience, it’s very much Brazilian style. The other day we went to a free gig by Chico Cesar, quite a famous Brazilian singer, performed in the open air Cultural Centre. It was well supported, especially by the zany and wacky people of Palmas, which I didn’t know existed.

One day we bumped into a friend, who is a singer, at a bar on the beach. She happily took her guitar out and sang a few songs at our table. She has a wonderful voice and sang some great songs to get our group all up and dancing. Shortly an accordionist walked past and joined in for a couple of numbers. The event passed by without much reaction from the bar staff or the customers.

Another day, another singer friend, another bar. She also sang us a few songs. It’s impressive to see such talented, close up, with no effects, no equipment, just their voices, doing what they love. We then moved to a karaoke bar, where a group of lads were laughing at everyone’s efforts. After our friend sang one or two songs perfectly, she gave the microphone to them. All but one of them chickened out and left one to sing alone under our intense gaze. Afterwards he seemed traumatised, hopefully enough to not ridicule other singers again.

Karaoke is usually sung sitting down here, and they often take the music from well-known international songs, such as David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, etc and rewrite the lyrics into cheesy romantic ballads. This disappointment is balanced by the 2 litre towers of chilled beer with a tap that they deliver to your table, after one or two of which everyone sings a little better.