Vinicius de Moraes - Later Life

Later Life

In the 1960s and 1970s, Vinicius continued collaborating with many renowned Brazilian singers and musicians, particularly Baden Powell, with whom he penned a series of songs with a heavy Afro-Brazilian influence and which came to be known collectively as the Afro-Sambas.

As a known bohemian and a diplomat, Vinícius didn't endear himself as a civil servant to the petty moralizing military that had taken power in Brazil after the military coup d'etat of 1964, being spied upon by political police and branded as a "rabble" (marginal) and a drunk. Eventually, during a purge in the Ministry of Foreign Relations, he was forcibly retired in 1969, at age 55. Although taken aback by his forced retirement, he at the time laughed down the case against him: when it was made known that the Ministry purge was directed against "homosexuals and drunks", he jokingly retorted that his alcoholism was public knowledge. Afterwards, he proceeded to tackle a full-time artistic career.

In the 1970s, already established and with a new partner, the guitarist and singer Antônio Pecci Filho, nicknamed Toquinho, Vinícius worked in tandem on both musical and literary productions, putting forth various albums and books of great commercial success. At the time he would be briefly married, in succession, to three women: Cristina Gurjão - to whom he would beget his daughter Maria - the actress Gesse Gessy and the Argentinian Marta Rodrigues Santamaria.

He also toured through Europe with Chico Buarque, the singer-songwriter son of the historian, and Nara Leão, and Argentina with Dorival Caymmi and Oscar Castro-Neves. His most stable partner, however, remained Toquinho, alongside whom he would release a series of very popular and influential albums. Their live performances, both in Brazil and Europe, were often conducted as intimate meetings with the public, where Vinícius - sitting in the middle of the stage at a small table with a checked tablecloth and a bottle of whiskey, with a microphone in his hand - chatted and endlessly told amusing stories (in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese) to the audience while repeatedly serving himself fine Scotch whisky between songs.

Hundreds of international performers have recorded more than 400 of Vinícius's songs.