Contemplando means 'contemplating' or 'gazing thoughtfully'. It's a beautiful and evocative verb that suggests deep thought and observation, going beyond a simple 'looking'.
In the song, the lyric "Corro os dedos na viola / Contemplando a lua cheia" (I run my fingers on the viola / Contemplating the full moon) paints a serene and introspective image. This word perfectly captures a moment of quiet reflection amidst the song's themes of loneliness and disillusionment, making it both memorable and enticing for a learner.
“Dança Da Solidão” invites us to imagine loneliness as a swirling samba. Marisa Monte and Paulinho Da Viola turn the heavy feeling of solitude into a rhythmic, almost hypnotic dance where everyone ends up moving. The lyrics paint loneliness as molten lava that silently covers everything, leaving a bitter taste and gray smiles. Through vignettes of heartbreak—Camélia’s sudden widowhood, Joana’s blinding passion, Maria’s tragic end—the song shows how disappointment keeps time like a metronome, guiding our reluctant steps on the dance floor of life.
Yet amid disillusion lies a hidden spring of hope. The narrator remembers a father’s warning to stay cautious, strums a viola under the full moon, and discovers a “fonte de água pura,” a pure water source that promises to wash away bitterness. The message is clear: even when sorrow leads the choreography, music, memory, and a sip of optimism can help us glide through the darkness and find light on the other side.
Marisa Monte grew up in Rio de Janeiro, born into a musical family: her mother sang and her father worked as a musical director. She trained her voice with an opera teacher before turning to popular music, and by the late 1980s she had become a central figure in Música Popular Brasileira, an alto who moves easily between samba, jazz, pop, and soul within a single record.
Her 1994 album Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão carried her music well beyond Brazil, and she has since won four Latin Grammy Awards. In 2002 she teamed up with Arnaldo Antunes and Carlinhos Brown to form Tribalistas, whose self-titled album sold more than two million copies across Latin America. She followed it by releasing two solo records on the same day in 2006, Universo ao Meu Redor and Infinito Particular, and has collected eight Brazilian Music Awards and seven MTV Video Music Brazil trophies over her career.