Roberto de Carvalho: “Ainda sinto a Rita Lee viva em mim”

Rita Lee heard Roberto de Carvalho's guitar playing before they ever met, and she appreciated the music. Roberto's song Bandido Coração had been written by Rita for Ney Matogrosso in the 1970s. In this episode of The Business of Life, hosted by Nilton Bonder, Roberto discusses how he abandoned a career as a diplomat to become a musician, and the intensity of his nearly 50-year partnership with Rita Lee, which ended with her passing in 2023.

Born and raised between Tijuca and Ipanema, Roberto lost his mother at age five and was raised by his uncles. He began playing the piano at three, but music did not pull him in immediately. Inspired by his grandfather Zenóbio da Costa, a former War Minister and ambassador to Paraguay, Roberto wanted to be a diplomat. "Things happened in layers," he explains.

In Ipanema's Pier during the 1970s, Roberto met Jorge Mautner, with whom he made his first professional recording. After that, he joined Ney Matogrosso's band. Shortly after recording Bandido Coração, Rita and Roberto met at a rain-cancelled Ney show at Rio's MAM. The early months were intense as Rita was pregnant, arrested by the dictatorship, and faced financial difficulties.

Roberto traveled to São Paulo, arranged lawyers, contacted the record label, and helped reorganize the career and life of the woman with whom he was beginning a family. "I was doing what I had to do," he says. Shortly after, he joined Rita's band Tutti Frutti as a keyboardist. From there, Roberto became a partner in composition; their first success was the hit Mania de Você.

From there, came Lança Perfume, Saúde, and a series of albums that helped define Brazilian pop. The creative process was intimate and personal; he played melodies while Rita listened to the tape and, gradually, wrote the lyrics. "I was in my improvising thing, in my playing. And Rita, very disciplined, Capricornian, somewhat methodical," he says.

In the final part of the conversation, moved, Roberto believes Rita has not gone away. "I still feel Rita living in me," he says. In a new relationship, he says he is living a new blessing — that does not replace the pain, nor does it compete with it. The post Roberto de Carvalho: "Ainda sinto a Rita Lee viva em mim" was first published on Brazil Journal.