Aposentado literally means 'retired', usually referring to someone who has stopped working. However, in this song, Marisa Monte uses it in a beautiful and poetic way to describe the state of her heart.
She sings, "JĂĄ estava aposentado, sem nenhuma ilusĂŁo" (My heart was already retired, without any illusion). This metaphor suggests her heart had given up on love, much like a person retires from a career, making it a unique and memorable word in this context.
This is such a sweet and happy song! Marisa Monte sings about the incredible feeling of finding love when you've completely given up on it. She starts with a huge sigh of relief: "Ainda bem / Que agora encontrei vocĂȘ" (Thank goodness / I found you now). It's like she can't believe her luck, wondering what she did to deserve this person.
Before this new love, she felt totally alone and overlooked. She says "ninguĂ©m / Dava nada por mim" (nobody / bet anything on me), and she had even "desacreditei de mim" (lost faith in myself). Her heart was so used to being alone that she calls it "aposentado" (retired) and "maltratado" (mistreated). But then, this new person arrives and changes everything. They didn't just show up for a little while, "VocĂȘ veio pra ficar" (You came to stay), making her happy and making her sing again.
Marisa Monte grew up in Rio de Janeiro immersed in samba long before she ever sang pop. Her father worked as a cultural director at the Portela samba school, and as a teenager she trained for the opera, later moving to Rome to study voice, before turning back toward Brazilian popular music. That classical training shaped her alto, and she built a career blending samba, MPB, bossa nova, and pop into her own sound.
Her albums include Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão and Memórias, CrÎnicas e DeclaraçÔes de Amor, the record that won her first Latin Grammy. She also formed Tribalistas with Arnaldo Antunes and Carlinhos Brown: a two-day studio visit turned into a week of writing songs together, and the trio's debut album sold over two million copies. She has won four Latin Grammys in total, and Rolling Stone Brasil ranks her the second-greatest Brazilian singer in the country's history, behind only Elis Regina.