Uday Vellozo, with stage name of Benito di Paula (born November 28, 1941), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and writer. He is known for his characteristic samba that started when he was young and sang in hotels and nightclubs in Rio de Janeiro, where he did not play a specific genre. Di Paula was invited by a friend to play in Santos, where he led his career in the State of São Paulo.
He settled down and raised a family in São Paulo, where he developed his career, becoming the great symbol of Samba Paulista. Between the 70s and 80s he achieved great fame, having sold 50 million records until today, being the 5th largest record seller in Brazil. In addition to Brazil, Di Paula sold records in other countries, recorded in languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, Finnish, German and others, with a total of 4 million records sold in Europe. He has more than 35 recorded LPs, with an important part of his work being re-released on CD, due to his great success.
Biography Childhood Born in Nova Friburgo on November 28, 1941, Uday Vellozo is the son of José Vellozo, a railway worker at Leopoldina Station, and Maria, who also had 12 other children. It was a family of humble origins. His father descended from gypsies and knew how to play several string instruments in an amateur way. He had a Carnival block, with the name "Good people doesn't mix with us", and a Regional group. Watching him play, Uday also learned some instruments.
Beginning as a singer Uday Vellozo achieved national fame as Benito di Paula, a name chosen by him and Alfredo Motta, a great promoter of his career who invited him when he was between 15 and 16 years old to sing at the Avenida Hotel, located on Dante Laginestra Street, in downtown from Nova Friburgo. Initially, they chose the artistic name "Benito" for Uday, to which they later added "di Paula", with the aim of "Italianizing" the singer's name. At the age of 17, he went to serve in the Army in Rio de Janeiro. He lived in Morro da Formiga (Ant Hill), in the Tijuca, North Zone of the city, where he was a crooner at nightclubs, mainly at the Balalaika nightclub, in Copacabana, however he earned not much money. One day, a couple friends invited him to earn twice as much in São Paulo. Benito continued to play the piano in nightclubs Santos and in the city of São Paulo, as well as at Samba Cathedral, in the Bixiga neighborhood, where he often performed.
Career start and rise In 1956, still young, he began his recording life with Portinho & sua Orquestra, with his own single "Final".CL 33.513/1956 And from this year until the middle of the next decade, he makes compositions and appearances while playing in nightclubs in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1966 he released two of his songs on a compact disc by the label Continental, which included the first song from 1956 on one side, and "Bem Feito", on the other, the first being accompanied by Portinho & sua Orquestra and the second by Os Brasas. In 1968 another compact was recorded, in this one, there was, in addition to his song, "Canção para o Nosso Amor", a recording of "Andança", a song by Beth Carvalho. In the first copies of this compact, there was still his born name, Uday Vellozo, on the cover, but soon after he changed to his artistic name by which he became known, Benito di Paula . With that, shortly after, he delivered three new songs for an album together with other artists, whose name was Para Você; the songs were "Mocidade é Alegria", "Mestre" and "Natal no Brasil"; in addition to also recording a composition by J.M. Ferreira and Mariza Saboya, "Espera".Selo Som – IMJ 001 The song "Canção para o Nosso Amor" earned Benito, the main soundtrack of the telenovela Nino, o Italianinho by TV Tupi from 1969, in addition to the album itself. Even at that time, his music had a rhythm that resembled rock and soul, Roberto Carlos style, and melancholy romantics. In the same year, he delivered compositions and lyrics to other artists, such as Ronnie Von, on his album "A Misteriosa Luta Do Reino De Parassempre Contra O Império De Nunca Mais", the song "Foi Bom".Polydor Seal – LPNG 44.037
In 1970, he released the single "Hei John/Faça de Mim Uma Ilha", which competed and won the Chico Viola Prize of the same year, given by TV Record, and as a result, in 1971 the recording company Copacabana invited him to record an LP record as a crooner, whose LP name was "Benito di Paula", which included "Jesus Cristo" (Roberto and Erasmo Carlos), "Azul da cor do mar" (Tim Maia) and "Apesar de Você", by Chico Buarque. For that last song, he was censored from being played on the radio and had his records recalled from stores. On this same album, he also performed four compositions of his own, including "Violão Não Se Empresta a Ninguém", which was the song that ended up selling the LP. This, being in 1972 the 66th most played song on the radio.
Shortly after Di Paula's historic performance on the Chacrinha show, still on the now defunct TV Tupi, Chico Buarque, in the midst of the recordings for the LP of the soundtrack of Carlos Diegues, When Carnival Comes, Buaque would leave the house for the studio whistling the melody. A single hearing of the song was enough for Chico's prodigious musical memory to immediately register the lyrics and melody of the song. Even more curiously, after a moment along the way, Chico's brain began to spontaneously offer him variations on Benito di Paula's original lyrics, in the more well-known "buarquian style", by then already consolidated. Chico took advantage of the musicians present at the session that day to record his version of the song. The recording would not see the light of day, being left out of the final version of the album and Chico ended up never presenting it to the composer.Claudio Nasci, Chico Buarque – Vioão Não Se Empresta a Ninguém
His second LP "Ela", from 1972, took some of his tracks to other places, such as the United States. But in 1973 he burst onto the charts with the third "Um Novo Samba", in whose cover he already appeared with his mustache and goatee, long hair, in addition to chains, earrings, bracelets etc.. The great success of this album was the song "Retalhos de Cetim", which became the 2nd most played in all media of the year, being its biggest success until then. In this "Um Novo Samba", Benito created his own style of playing samba, but this generated a lot of controversy among some of the critics at the time, who began to call what he did "samba-joia", by combining traditional samba with piano and arrangements romantic and jazzistic. However, this Samba-joia did not please Benito, who never stopped mentioning it as a pejorative term, since it identifies itself as being of the Samba genre. Being impelled by "Retalhos de Satin", Benito became one of the great names of the Brazilian Popular Music of the 70s. This same composition opened the doors to success in Brazil and abroad, having been recorded by Jair Rodrigues, by the orchestra of Paul Mauriat and by the guitarist American Charlie Byrd, also appearing among the compositions selected by the historian Jairo Severiano as one of the greatest hits of the year 1973. The simple compact had sold more than 150 thousand copies.
1970s and heyday In 1974 he released another LP, entitled "Gravado Ao Vivo", which contained more songs that became the most played of the year, including "Beleza Que Você é Mulher", "Apesar de Tudo" and his other great song that is almost always associated with his name, "Charlie Brown". This song took 5 years to compose, starting in 1969, the year Benito was living in an Italian inn in Santos; where the other residents read Charlie Brown comics. When Benito asked about what was going on in the comics, he was enchanted with the character and then wrote the song that became one of the most played in 1974. In the same year, Roberto Carlos releases his fourteenth studio album on the label CBS, containing as track number two the song "Quero Ver Você de Perto", being it a song by Benito that had not been released on any record until then. Di Paula also recorded the song "Último Andar" for the national soundtrack of the drama O Espigão (Rede Globo), aired between April and November of the same year.
In 1975 he released two LPs. One of these was a career album, and had more hits that were played at the time, among them being "Vai Ficar na Saudade", "Não Precisa Me Perdoar" and "Bandeira Do Samba", all going to the most played of the year. On this same album there was a song in tribute to Ataulfo Alves, "Como Dizia O Mestre", a great inspiration for Benito and also another tribute, which was "Sanfona Branca", made for Luiz Gonzaga. Benito was a friend of Luiz Gonzaga, ever since they first met in the bathroom at an Artists' Caravan in Brasília planned by Silvio Santos. Luiz Gonzaga also wrote a song for Benito, "Chapéu de Couro e Gratidão", from his album "Chá Cutuba". Gonzaga called him "my step son".
In the same year, he hosted the TV program "Brasil Som 75", on TV Tupi, from São Paulo, which resulted in an album released in the same year, in which he presented some of his guests, including Elizeth Cardoso, Wando and Bebeto. On this album, he released another hit at the time, "Mulher Brasileira", a song that is also usually associated with him. One of the times he left the show's recording studio, he found Adoniran Barbosa, who gave him a piece of paper with half a song done and asked Benito to continue. Benito continued the song and later, together with Adoniran, they delivered it to the group Os Três Moraes, with the title "Não Precisa Muita Coisa". In the same year, alongside Elizeth Cardoso, Paulinho da Viola, Gilberto Gil, Jorge Ben Jor, Beth Carvalho, Sônia Santos, Quinteto Violado and Cláudia, was part of the Brazilian delegation that participated in the Midem Festival (Marché International du Disque et de l'Édition Musicale), in the city of Cannes, in France. Still in 1975, he released the song "Charlie Brown" abroad, which was very successful, to the point that Chico Buarque referred to Charlie Brown as if he were a real character. The song was covered by artists like Two Man Sound and Sylvia Vrethammar.
In 1976 he still continued and released an album with the name "Brasil Som 76", but was soon replaced by Elizeth Cardoso, this album not being widely distributed. However, he released a career album, which featured three songs that once again became radio hits, and they were "Tudo Está No Seu Lugar", a song made for his mother and family, "Do Jeito Que A Vida Quer", another tribute to Ataulfo Alves, and "Maria Baiana Maria", which yielded a single single just for this song. With all these songs gaining fame with each album released, Benito is nominated for the Press Trophy of best singer of the same year, competing against Roberto Carlos and Chico Buarque, and ends up winning the award. He also makes his first appearance at the Golden Globe from Rede Globo, with the song "Vai Ficar Na Saudade" , yielding a music video in the same year.Som Livre – 403.6088Fantastico February 15, 1976