Vinicius de Moraes

Marcus Vinicius de Moraes was born on October 19, 1913, in the Gávea neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. A student of law and English literature at Oxford University, young Vinicius early established himself as one of modern Brazil's foremost poets with sensual, melancholic sonnets published in Forma e Exegese (1935) and Novos Poemas (1938).

Serving Brazil as a career diplomat in Los Angeles, Paris, and Montevideo, Vinicius revolutionized Brazilian popular culture in 1956 when he wrote the musical play Orfeu da Conceição (Orpheus of the Conception), adapting the Greek myth of Orpheus to Rio's favelas. Collaborating with young pianist Antônio Carlos (Tom) Jobim, their theatrical score gave birth to Bossa Nova. The film adaptation, Black Orpheus (1959), swept the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 1962, sitting at the Veloso bar in Ipanema watching eighteen-year-old Helô Pinheiro walk toward the sea, Vinicius and Jobim penned 'Garota de Ipanema' ('The Girl from Ipanema'). Recorded by Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz, it became the second most recorded popular song in human history after The Beatles' 'Yesterday'. Vinicius passed away in Rio in 1980, remaining an immortal national symbol of Brazilian romanticism, music, and lyrical freedom.