Caetano Veloso, from Lisbon, speaks slowly, via video call, with that mix of intellectual lucidity and Bahian melancholy that for six decades has turned each of his interviews into something more akin to a philosophical conversation than a simple promotion of albums or concerts. At 83 years old, the Brazilian musician faces a tour titled Caetano at festivals, that will pass through Spain (Madrid, June 4) and that he himself describes, without drama but honestly, as perhaps the last stop in our country. And that despite the close relationship it has always maintained with Spanish culture. But there is no monumental nostalgia in his words; rather physical fatigue, wise resignation, political concern and a bitter look—although not yet defeated—on the present. He speaks, without losing his passion, about the military dictatorship that his country suffered, about Silicon Valley, about The Beatles, about contemporary confusion and about a Brazil that, despite everything, continues to believe capable of “saying something to the world.”
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