Translator: Denise Pelusch Reviewer: Claudia Sander
I come here with a terrifying mission
which is, somehow, to disagree with Marcelo
about our human race being doomed to extinction.
In a few million years?
In a few billion years?
So we have time.
(Laughter)
Time for what?
So we differentiate ourselves
from the races that were extinct more quickly.
I cling to a philosophical concept
that says that what differentiates us from these races,
from animals, from irrational beings,
is thinking and, for many philosophers, art.
I know that many people disagree, but music, especially rock,
is art.
I am in a rock band,
even though I don't look like I am, dressed like this.
I wear this, so we can make a counterpoint to it.
I will lay out for you
the impact that I observed doing the work that I do.
Nenhum de Nós is a band that will be 28 years old
and its first big hit,
in the hit parades,
was a song called Camila that talked about a hard theme:
violence against women.
That's why her "shame at the mirror, of the marks, the insane eyes
that passed the days watching me."
No band goes into the market trying to be successful with such a theme, do we agree?
But we dared to do it.
And this has been our agenda through today,
reinforced by these stories that I am about to tell you.
Because such impact, maybe some of you will notice,
because you remember our songs that marked some moment
and became a soundtrack, as they say,
of a special moment in your life.
However, these stories that I will tell you went beyond.
There is a moment, I mentioned the hit parades,
that you have to choose:
a way that takes to the hit parades,
or the other way, that takes you, to say it simply, to be an artist,
someone who bets on the progress of human race.
My first example is of a 12-year-old woman.
You will say, "What do you mean, a 12-year-old woman?"
In Caxias do Sul,
we went to give a concert, and a 12-year-old girl
came to me with a letter, before the concert,
handed it to me asking me to not to read it right away.
I asked her, "Are you coming to the concert tonight?"
She said, "I can't, I am 12. Read it later."
We played the concert, I noticed that she wasn't there,
I got the letter, which I brought here.
We can tell from her writing, right?
"I love Nenhum de Nós,
it was a band that, without knowing about me,
was always next to me, through their music, through words..."
Through words.
"through lyrics..."
Through lyrics.
"through a perfect combination of notes.
Just by enjoying listening to your CDs several times,
without getting sick of it, I already felt well."
I loved "without getting sick of it."
(Laughter)
"I just wanted to reveal my feelings for you guys
and thank you for all that you did for me,
without even knowing that you were doing good to someone."
I imagined it was going to be one more great letter to get,
saying how nice we were,
and how the Nenhum de Nós songs were cool
and how they enjoy it, how she, our girl,
really enjoyed Nenhum de Nós, but the letter took a different direction.
This girl, at the age of eight,
lived with her mother and dad, and the dad left the house.
They separated.
She had to live together with a stepfather
who started to abuse her when she was eight.
At eight, she started to face things that we know from stories we hear
that are very hard, and for her it was even worse
because she was constantly threatened, if she told anyone.
It was terrible,
because the community started to find out,
they started to isolate the girl at school.
Then we start to see some of the things that she says,
"I became withdrawn, wouldn't go out,
didn't have fun, wouldn't go to my friends' houses,
didn't do anything except listening to Nenhum de Nós."
At that moment, without knowing,
I was doing a lot for that girl.
At that moment, in my house, playing, composing, without knowing,
I was giving support to someone who was completely unsupported,
she couldn't even tell her mother.
At some point, her mom found out and kicked the stepfather out,
who didn't give in,
and one day came back to take the girl.
I won't get into details,
but the story ended tragically for him.
After that, in the letter,
come some of the most shocking statements I have read;
someone referring to their own life,
and to the relationship she had with our music.
"In times like these, we see our real friends,
and a few stayed by my side."
When the story came to the surface, she was left alone.
"Today, I am 12.
I love my mom, my family, I have fun, and I still have good grades at school."
She's still worried about having good grades at school.
The final phrase hits me the most:
"I know all I have to do now
is to let flourish the girl who is still asleep inside of me
and let go the woman who was born prematurely."
Imagine reading this, knowing that your music
was the friend that she needed.
It was the support that she needed.
There is no way to measure that.
That day, if I already thought that I had to do something
not aiming the hit parades,
but for the improvement of the human being,
that letter was decisive for me.
If I already thought that I had a mission as an artist,
which was not just delivering the circus,
but helping people to make the bread, which is not the obvious bread,
but the spiritual bread, maybe.
The cases that I will narrate here
seem so heavy, the next one is a little heavy,
but I have a surprise at the end which is sensational to us.
Fábio Santos is a friend, I can already say that, from Taubaté.
I will give you his testimony
about the importance of the music of Nenhum de Nós.
(Video) Fábio Santos: I had a brother named Marcelo, born in 1984,
he was younger than me.
Marcelo was a kid who, since birth,
couldn't see, walk, and talk, and had many seizures,
and each time he had a seizure my parents took him to the hospital.
During one of his seizures, in 1989,
my parents took him to the hospital,
but he didn't survive.
It was a very hard time for us, with a child,
and at the time I couldn't understand all that was happening.
That same year of 1989, Nenhum de Nós released the album Cardume
and another phrase that stood out for me
was "I want a chance to try to live without pain."
It allowed me to see that my brother wasn't suffering anymore.
Another moment
that stood out about Nenhum
was in 1996, when they released the album Mundo Diablo.
The first song of this album
was called "Vou deixar que você se vá," that means "I will let you go."
The process of inner healing, both for me and my family,
was through the songs of Nenhum de Nós,
especially "O astronauta de mármore" and "Vou deixar que você se vá."
Thedy Corrêa: Can you see a little of the connection that he made?
"I will let you go."
Something tied the family to the memory of the brother.
His mother went through depression,
and, as he said, this song helped them heal
and understand that it was time for the family to let go
of such a painful memory.
Not forgetting him, but letting go of the pain.
He talks about family healing.
Again, at home, composing, I didn't know that this was happening.
But I need to have such a notion.
I need to grasp the idea that what I'm doing,
if well done,
I am, in a way,
helping to build a humanity that won't be extinct that soon.
I am in a way dreaming
that art can do a little more
than they make us believe.
When I talk about hit parades,
I don't want to deal with it with prejudice,
but we know that, especially in Brazil,
a song that has a little more content
has lost its place in the hit parades,
and those who choose to go the other way have a price to pay.
But it is a price worth paying.
Oh, it is worth paying!
I will show you why.
Our next case,
"Someone special", Pedro Otávio, six years old, Brasília.
I will give you guys a glimpse of who Pedro is.
His mom sent us a letter, saying what was happening to Pedro.
He is in the autism spectrum.
He doesn't communicate with his mom or with anyone else.
Autism has several characteristics, and one of the main ones
is that people with autism live in their own world.
His communication with his mom was practically zero,
to the point that if she left him sitting on a couch,
or on a park bench and left, he would stay there.
He never cries, he is a child who is always smiling.
His world then has a lot of happiness.
This is motivating.
At one and a half, he learned to read by himself.
Another characteristic of the autistic.
The extraordinary ability to do things that we,
not autistic, take a long time and have a hard time to do.
He has speech impediments.
He can express things through speaking,
but not to communicate the way we do.
He has trouble with his treatment because,
as he has several symptoms of autism,
the doctors can't determine a diagnosis.
One beautiful day, 6am, his mom Joana was lying down
and he knocked on her door asking her to play a DVD.
She thought it was Galinha Pintadinha for the millionth time.
It wasn't, he asked her to play Nenhum de Nós.
You will see what happens to Pedro
when he plays a Nenhum de Nós DVD.
(Music) (Video)
♪ Take me away
a new life
begins today ♪
TC: Now you will see the piano, which he is playing on the counter.
We went to Brasília and met Pedro.
It was an unbelievable experience.
He wouldn't stay still, he lived in another world,
and when someone started singing a Nenhum de Nós song for him
he would stop and pay attention.
His mom, watching that happen,
found a way to communicate with Pedro.
She said a brilliant phrase, "Pedro has his own world,
and, somehow, Nenhum de Nós went inside it."
Nenhum de Nós opened the door for his mom to get in.
You will see what happens now,
how he communicates.
(Video) (Music)
♪ Call the family
warn the uncle and grandpa
today they will all know
that their little girl got married.
Forbidden, hidden,
too young to choose
her mom almost faints
her father says he wants to die.
I had been her boyfriend.
Flowers on the head
our bare feet
our whole life
of peace and love.
Flowers on the head,
our bare feet,
our whole life
of peace and love.
Flowers on the head,
our bare feet,
our whole life
of peace and love.
Peace and love. ♪
(Applause)
Someone could say, "Does he understand the words?"
He does.
He started to tap on his head, for the flowers, and on his feet.
His mom started to do the heart gesture to communicate with him
at that moment when he knew it was time.
Now, I ask you, wrapping up,
if we can use music, rock music,
to make a human being better, for us to reach another level
of this concept that we are all humans,
why not do it?
Why do we always have to target the hit parades?
Why?
There are some relations, which Sam talked about at the beginning,
invisible things, which sometimes take us,
compel us to do things as if there was only one way.
I want to tell you that Nenhum de Nós,
living in Porto Alegre, refuses to accept that way.
We pay the price, because it is hard.
To the rest of Brazil, we sound strange.
But after seeing things such as these, we won't give up.
If for many, Nenhum de Nós is an outdated band because of it,
because we talk about upsetting topics,
"I want party, I want to repeat the tche-tcherere
and have fame doing that,"
well, we are not doing that.
If we have a mission here,
for 28 years together as a band,
it is to try to make the human race not to extinct itself so quickly
and if we can help with our music,
we will be much happier than if we were on top of the hit parades.
(Applause)