Shut the door, turn off the lights, come (come back) Hear Doce – Vida

We tend to imagine a world of pre-colored television and pre-colored photographs dipped in just three colors: black, white and gray. It is as if it were a technical advance, the discovery of new ways to record history, and to enable the entry of color into homes and people. Gag appears in childhood and can extend into adulthood, spurred on by the records in those times. Bill Watterson, the famous author of the no less famous comic “Calvin and Hobbes”, So make a joke about the thing: In the past the world was really black and white, and the existence of color paintings was justified by the idea that all great artists were crazy…

What works for millions of people around the world naturally applies to Portuguese people, especially to those born after April 25th. The misery caused by 50 years of dictatorship is also imaginative. Portugal Salazar was, quite simply, gray, sad, boring. Only with the revolution, which brought us the red color of carnation, the Portuguese were finally able to discover all the shades that the human eye can pick up. Chromatic conservatism ended the same day the army took to the streets.

This discovery of color is mentioned in the framing of Doce in a Portuguese society that has just emerged from the dictatorship and the revolution that ended it, and is still fighting its two sides, the face of conservatism and the face of the progressive. Because, had it not been for this discovery, it is entirely possible that Doce would have been little more than a footnote to Portuguese pop music. Can anyone imagine Fatima Padina, Lina Coelho, Teresa Miguel and Laura Diogo Without Purple and Blue in the 1980 Song Contest? Can anyone hear the post-disco Kiss me from “Bem Bom”, and you’re thinking of a black and white world?

color pioneers

Color helps form memories. He helped popularize Doce, born in 1979 by Tozé Brito, who was invited after Quarteto 1111, and Green Windows and Gemini (a group of which Teresa Miguel and Fatma Badenha were also part) to work as A&R at PolyGram. As soon as the Geminis had finished their activity, an idea occurred to Tozé Brito and Mike Sargeant, a Scotsman who had settled in Portugal for a long time: ‘Why not set up a group of women only?’.

As Doce was among the first, but they weren’t the first Portuguese pop group with only women. Previously, there were cocktails, also under the direction of Tozé Brito, which included Lena Coelho and Fernanda de Sousa, now known nationally as Ágata, in their ranks. However, only Doce has achieved the status reserved for great pop bands: the ability to celebrate a moment and a generation, through songs that outlast the passage of time, that have become part of people’s cultural memory. When Jack White saw soccer fans from Lisbon to the Ural Mountains taking over the White Stripes, his “Seven Nation Army”, his reaction was no stranger: “There is nothing more beautiful in music than when people embrace melody and allow it to enter the Pantheon of Folk Music » Well, he said, it was exactly that, what happened To the first “Tomorrow Morning” Unmarried of sweets.

From Doce to the “Amanhã de Manhã” version, by Sargeant and Brito, was a short jump. From there to success, it was no less. “Amanhã de Manhã” became one of the great successes of Portugal in 1980, who fell in love with the quartet flatly when he watched them perform at the Cannesau Festival that year – the first broadcast by RTP in color. Their subject, a homonym, reached second place, defeating only Tozé Brito’s great friend and colleague, José Cid. But the image, the colorful dresses, the simple and smiling choreography, the sparkle of sequins and hairstyles, was more than amazing: it was a clear sign of the birth of the new Portugal.

In “Eu Sou Outra Tu”, a biography of Tozé Brito by Luciano Reis, the purpose of Doce’s upbringing is explained in this way: “To monetize from the visual side, the four women take a sensual attitude related to the structure of the songs “,” which also had little resemblance In Portugal until then, “victim” of the fado and nationalism. Formula, however simulated by dozens of Children e girl groups, in a way that it was not only in Portugal that Doce succeeded. Lusophone communities are proud of them. The foreign listeners who listened to them praised them as well. Countries like Spain, France, the United States or even the Philippines can listen to the quartet’s music. Doce’s internationalization, through the release of subjects sung in English, became part of the plans.

Success and bitterness

‘Tomorrow in the Morning’, a sex-laden song by romance, seemed to want to fill once and for all the rotting Christian morality proclaimed by Estado Novo, which still pollutes here and there. “OK KO”, Doce’s first album, was the cement that covered it: In addition to “Amanhã de Manhã”, Portugal also began singing “Rock Me No Divã” (You are Do you have my love / any Acrobatic thing / what Draw me there on your couch) , “good idea” (Over the This is crazy / I feel naked I want to fly / In all this magic / Someday we’ll connect), or even “homemade candy”, metallic language to reveal to listeners why they should pay attention (We are sweet home on the coals Try a piece of grace from our aggressive candy).

It’s no wonder, however, that Dossie didn’t fool the minds of some. It may be surprising that this did not happen to the feminist writer and poet Maria Theresa Horta, one of the “Tres Marias,” who said in remarks to Nova Gent magazine, in 1981, that she was “amazed at Duce’s pornography.” , below the women of Cais do Sodré”, after seeing the group translating “Ali Baba” at the Cansau Festival that year in now-famous costumes. However, these first records of alibi would not affect the group; the bad moments were reserved for the few circumstances they would encounter on their travels. Across Portugal, where oxcars were used as dressing rooms, or where priests were not allowed to work in their churchyards.

But there was a rumor that, even in 2021, is still widely talked about, the target of jokes and MemesAnd the Immortalized in the video game “Paradise Cafe”who threatened to end Dossi’s career. In 1981, with the group in Canada, there are rumors that Laura Diogo was hospitalized in Santa Maria, after a session of anal sex with Rinaldo, at that time a Benfica player, happily married and father of children. The origins of this rumor are still unknown, but the thing that was discovered: every house commented on the case, every pub had it bitten on the tip of its tongue – and this is at a time when neither the concept of “social networking” nor the concept of “social networking” was a concept of “viral” Existing. Upon their return to Portugal, Doce is forced to deny this ultimate example fake newsBut to meet with lawyers.

Rumors didn’t cut short the success, though – and Doce entered 1982 determined to conquer the world. In a new edition of Festival da Canção, the biggest showcase of musical talent in Portugal at the time, the quartet finally won first place with “Bem Bom”, enabling them to star in Eurovision. There, the rating was more modest: thirteenth place, far from the German Nicole, who won this year’s edition of the festival. However, Doce gets some international contracts, and releases singles in both Spanish and English in an effort to break into these markets.

Everything has an end – or not

Success, as we know, is not always positive. Doce triumphs over the audience, but they struggle with the pressures of not being able to live a normal life. Comfort with the family, at home, is set in the background: the theater and the road become her only reality. And the group’s cravings begin to peak, fueled by fatigue and stress. The ghost of a dos end lurks. In his autobiography, Tozé Brito says: “One night I was sleeping, and at 4:00 in the morning my home phone rang and they said to me: ‘Look, we are in Porto, in Corcel, and the group is over.'”

The alarm wasn’t false, but was promptly resolved by the project’s mentor, who cited the “massive erosion” the Four Dossi felt as a conflict enhancer. He says, “I heard meaningless things, because you did this and that, ‘turn off the microphone, meaningless things.’ Those were the only problems and maybe Doce could have lasted a few more years, but the reality of physical and psychological fatigue didn’t come to light until years later. Photo: Lena Coelho will reveal that she has had not one but three abortions because of the candy. Teresa Miguel also went through the same thing, having a miscarriage once. And it will be Lina Coelho’s new pregnancy, in 1985, that will bring out the idea of ​​ending their career. It ends up replacing the singer with gata, between May and October of that year.

In between, there are a few platinum records for the Doce private group: “Quente Quente Quente” or “O Barquinho da Esperança” are hit songs, as well as “É Demais”, the group’s second album. In fact, it started getting too much. Agata certainly joined Doss after Fatma Padina’s departure in 1986, “but it wasn’t the same thing,” says Toseh Brito. A final album, Double and Anthology, was released that same year, covering the band’s most emblematic songs, in a farewell tone. The composer adds, “It was a very beautiful project, it was a huge success and lasted longer, but it ended with dignity without leaving Dossie’s memory shaky.”

They didn’t—so much so that Dossie would, just 40 years after being formed, arrive on the big screen. This time, “Bem Bom” director Patricia Sequera will tell the history of the group, with a screenplay by Filipa Martins and Cucha Carvalheiro. In the film the director intends to pay “a well-deserved tribute” to a group born of “repressed Portugal”, who conquered the country through difference. And after the movie, with the pandemic in mind, the stages: There are plans for the actresses who embody Doce in “Bem Bom” (Barbara Branco, Lea Carvalho, Ana Marta Ferreira and Carolina Carvalho) to sing, on tour, the songs that enchanted Portugal.

Perhaps the verb is incorrect: they did not “enchant”, they continued to charm. For many, the Doce is still a symbol of the magical ’80s when freedom wasn’t enforced, as Portugal took a giant leap into technicolor, as the world finally reopened to the Portuguese. In television competitions such as “Idols” or “A Tua Cara Não Me É Estranha”, Doce songs were present. “Docemania”, a 2003 compilation, that included remixes of topics such as “Bem Bom”, adapted to the reality of a house Modern dance floors. The same name was used in an under-18 version of the group, in 2007, under the direction of Lina Coelho. Therefore, the Doce family was never finished: they are still here, chasing the gray days.