Céu - Biography
Brazilian artist Ceu (charmingly, it means both heaven and sky in Portuguese) hasn’t been on the international stage for very long, but she’s certainly turned some heads and garnered some well-deserved and hard-earned attention since her arrival. She was born in Sao Paulo on April 17, 1980, as Maria do Ceu Whitaker Pocas, and raised in a musical household. It shows. He influences arch far beyond traditional Brazilian bossa nova to encompass an engaging, joyous mélange of rhythm ‘n’ blues, jazz, hip hop, electronic, samba, soul and Afro beat, all filtered through a mesmerizing stage presence and a thoroughly lovely voice. African and African American influence are the obvious touchstones in accessing Ceu’s work, and her strikingly casual efforts at fusing them with strident Latin American themes are at once examples of old-school intermingling and forward-thinking innovation. She claims a vibrant array of artists as providing her with personal inspiration, ranging from Ella Fitzgerald to Lauryn Hill to Billie Holiday, and if her initial albums are any indication, Ceu may rank alongside those esteemed names before her burgeoning career is through.
Ceu grew up with a voracious appetite for sound, consuming Brazilian classicists and turn-of-the-century carnival tunes with equal aplomb, and by her twenties, she was an established performer in Sao Paulo. However, her career really launched when she moved to New York City in the 2000s. Once there, she began working with two highly acclaimed Brazilian composers, Beto Villares and Antonio Pinto; Beto authored the soundtrack for the 2007 film O Ano em que Meus Pais Sairam de Ferias, while Pinto is best known for writing the scores for 1999’s Central Station and Fernando Meirelles’ 2003 Oscar-winning masterwork, City of God. This pair was the perfect choice to interpret and realize Ceu’s sophisticated and complex creative drives, and the resulting eponymous album, Ceu received a Latin American release via the Sao Paulo-based label, Urban Jungle. It was awash in gorgeous vocals, keenly executed instrumentation, impossibly infectious rhythms, slick audio sampling and superbly professional production, and it snagged ears around the globe. In a wildly fortunate (yet deserved) stroke, Ceu’s debut was picked up for North American and UK distribution by the ubiquitous corporate behemoth Starbucks, and the combined labels Six Degrees/Starbucks/Hear Music. This guaranteed Ceu a vast audience, and deposited her sounds in every coffeshop between Baton Rouge and Timbuktu.
The album Ceu earns its praise. Tracks like “Lenda,” “Malemolencia,” and “Mais um Lamento” marvelously showcase Ceu’s adventuresome, genre-eclipsing aesthetic, elevating Brazilian tradition on great columns of aural sunlight. The version of the Bob Marley standard “Concrete Jungle” is an especially cogent example of Ceu’s pan-cultural dexterity and critical perceptiveness. Ceu succeeded around the globe, including some giddily improbable acclaim in the United States, where its creator was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2006 Latin Grammy awards; that was followed by an even more prominent distinction, a nod for Best Contemporary World Music Album at the 2007 Grammys (the redundancy and dubious necessity of a culturally bifurcated Grammys is a conversation for another day). The record charted with Billboard in the US and went high in the UK charts, as well as gaining particular traction in France. Ceu made certain to maintain the momentum, following with Vagarosa (2009 Six Degrees). It’s a brilliant follow-up, replete in soaring themes and impossibly entertaining grooves. Vagarosa is also a slightly darker and more experimental work, and it dares to occasionally juxtapose Ceu’s liquid charm with trip-hop vibes, testicular dub-based throb and the occasional psychedelic swagger, all of which imply a terribly gifted artist who is only beginning to realize her epic potential.
