Agenor de Miranda Araújo Neto, mostly recognized by his artistic name “Cazuza”, was born in April 4, 1958, in Rio De Janeiro. His father, João Araújo, was one of the founders of the label Som Livre and his mother was Lucinha Araújo. Since his youth, Cazuza used to keep in touch with music, because of his father’s job, so that was one of the reasons that brought him to music. Cazuza started to be successful in Brazil as the lead-singer of the rock band Barão Vermelho, recording huge radio hits like “Bete Balanço” and “Pro dia nascer feliz”. With Barão Vermelho, he recorded 3 studio albums: “Barão Vermelho” (1982), “Barão Vermelho 2” (1983) and “Maior Abandonado” (1984). In 1985, the band performed at the first Rock In Rio and in that same year, he left the band to start a solo career.
His first solo record was “Exagerado” (1985) and it had big hits like “Exagerado” and “Codinome beija-Flor”.|He released his second album “Só Se For A Dois” in 1987 and it was in that year that he found out that he was HIV-positive.|Despite his disease, he became incredibly more creative and started writing lots of genius songs. In 1988 he released the great album “Ideologia”. His most famous songs are in this album: “Ideologia”, “Brasil”, “Faz Parte Do Meu Show”.|Cazuza released one of his biggest hits in the promo-tour of “Ideologia”, the song was called “O Tempo Não Pára” and a live album was released with this same name, containing his most successful hits from the solo career.|In February, 1989 Cazuza brought his sickness to the public eye and in August of the same year, he released “Burguesia”, a double-record with many different partnerships.
Cazuza died in July 7, 1990 at 32. His music is still alive, though: his work has passed through generations and youngsters really appreciate his albums.
“The ignorant people are the happiest. They don’t know when they’re going to die, but I do. I know I have a scheduled meeting. People forget what they have to do, but I can’t give myself this pleasure. I make everything fit in my next few days, all the ideas I would have, all the people I would meet, what I would still sing. I’m pregnant but I can’t wait, the time doesn’t stop and we go by running… But I’m here, trying to hold on to whatever I can. I’m weak. There’s a whole world around us that we don’t even notice. I’m skinny and small for my clothes. I feel like I am putting all my things together, concentrating. If I could, I’d put all of them into a bottle and I’d drink them all. I wonder what shall be left of me… but I, I can only insist.” — This text is a direct translation, so it may not have as much meaning as it does in its original language.
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