About Renato Teixeira

Renato Teixeira de Oliveira (Santos, born May 20, 1945) is a Brazilian singer and composer, author of the well-known song Romaria, made famous when it was recorded by Elis Regina together with Almir Sater, and also recorded by Maria Bethânia; Dadá Maria, as a duet with Gal Costa); and Frete, the opening theme of the Rede Globo TV series Carga Pesada. He spent his youth in Ubatuba, in the state of São Paulo until the age of 14 when he left for Taubaté, where he lived until the age of 24. At the beginning of the 1960s he worked as a DJ at Rádio Difusora in Taubaté, where he discovered Sertaneja music by way of Teodoro Israel, a nightclub DJ. In 1967 he moved to São Paulo, where, at the Patachou bar he shared tables with such contemporaries as Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa and Geraldo Vandré. More recently he wrote the song Rapaz Caipira (country boy) as criticism of the current mass-produced commercialized Sertaneja music, iniciating a rebirth of the term música caipira--loosely translated as hillbilly music (in a pejorative sense) music of the country folks. He is a defender of the música raiz (roots music), caipira, which is still around despite the changing face of Sertaneja music.