Gilberto Gil's performance in “Os Doces Bárbaros” (1976)

blackness and resistance against the military dictatorship in Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to discuss Gilberto Gil's resistance performance based on the documentary “Os Doces Bárbaros”, directed by Jon Tob Azulay. To this end, the moment of his trial will be analyzed, from minute 22:45 to 43:25 of the documentary; an action resulting from his arrest for possession of marijuana in 1976. The singer's performance reveals the ambivalent, ironic and sarcastic laughter at the moment the judges speak, denouncing the conservatism and oppression of the time, with AI-5 in force. Starring Bahians Gil, Gal Costa, Maria Bethânia and Caetano Veloso, the documentary presents a musical repertoire of resistance to the military period and highlights, in the artistic-musical representations, the African influence on Brazilian culture, incorporating representations of the mythical world of religions of African origins into its performances. This work aims to put Gil's performance in dialogue with compositions from the album Refavela, especially the song Sandra, in which the artist highlights the care of the women who accompanied him until his admission to the psychiatric hospital. In this way, we intend to observe how blackness, ancestry and the pulsating freedom in the works of Gilberto Gil and Doces Bárbaros constituted a source of resistance to the oppression suffered in a dictatorial context in Brazil.