BB King, Ed Sheeran, Tracy Chapman, the band Maneskin and Sheryl Crow are just a few of the renowned artists who began their careers playing on the street. In Portugal, there are several musicians who perform in different streets of the country and produce great songs, with dense lyrics and varied rhythms.

Among them, there are not only Portuguese. There are Brazilians, Italians, English and from other parts of the world that move the 'underground' of the city of Lisbon and beyond.

It was with these singer-songwriters who play in the streets of the capital in mind that the project emerged, approved by DGArtes, entitled 'Cantautores – Músicas e Músicos de Rua', which will record the original repertoire of ten artists in a documentary series and in 10 individual concerts that will take place at the Centro Cultural Fábrica Braço de Prata, from June 2 to 30, with free admission.

The documentary will include interviews with each of the artists about their work, their history in the streets, their musical journey, images of some presentations in the street and also the concert that each one will give at the Centro Cultural Braço de Prata.

The series will be made available, later, on a Youtube channel so that everyone can see and so that these musicians have a record for posterity, as well as to help them promote their work.

In addition, the concerts will be gathered on a vinyl to be released at the end of 2024.

Dates and times of the concerts

The concerts are scheduled for 7 pm and 8:30 pm. On June 2, you will be able to listen to Duda Laurent, who "sings the sea", according to the organization, with influences of bossa nova, jazz and samba. And Rodrigo Augusto Ribeiro, a Brazilian singer and composer, with a wide repertoire and trajectory in music. The artist has a very unique and singular style and, in addition to his own songs, he will reinterpret great works of Brazilian music by Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque, Pixinguinha, among others.

Concert poster© Cantautores

On June 9, you will be able to listen to the sounds of the Italian MAD-A, which transit between the roots of the oldest blues and the free branches of psychedelia, flowing between the most punk manias, and of Gabriel Pepe, a Portuguese composer, multi-instrumentalist and lyricist with popular roots, whose repertoire crosses Progressive Folk, Portuguese Intervention Song and Tropicalism.

On June 16, it is the turn of Julio Brechó and Vasco Ribeiro to take the stage. Julio works as a musician, actor, producer and sound and lighting technician between Brazil, Amsterdam and Lisbon. Vasco is a Portuguese singer-songwriter, composer and artist who focuses his creations on Portuguese popular music and the Portuguese songbook, also passing through rock, jazz, modern folk and Brazilian popular music.

On June 23, João Priolli, a Brazilian musician, composer, music producer and videomaker, more geared towards rock and post-rock, and Carolina Zingler, a guitarist, composer, singer and researcher of sounds, will perform. Despite playing on the street, the Brazilian artist already has five albums recorded and, in 2020, released a documentary that tells her story as a street artist, 'Take my soul to fly'.

Finally, on June 30, Pedro Gaia, a singer, guitarist and composer from São Paulo, with studies in flamenco in Spain, and Gabriel Selvage, winner of the Açorianos Music Award in the Best Instrumental Performer category in 2018 and with an album that he produced and arranged nominated for the Latin Grammy 2021, will take the stage. His music is based on the love for the land and the folkloric mix.

In addition to the concerts, the production of the documentary and the vinyl, the Cantautores project will offer 10 scholarships for a training course for beginners in popular singing and classical guitar for students from Marvila.

Leia Também: Dia Internacional e Noite dos Museus com centenas atividades no país (Portuguese version)