Desabotoado literally means "unbuttoned," like a shirt. It's a visually striking and poetic word you won't find in many songs.
In "Segue o Seco," Marisa Monte uses it in the beautiful metaphor, "Pode ser o desabotoado céu" (It could be the unbuttoned sky). This line creatively suggests the sky is about to open up and finally release the rain, offering a moment of hope after the song's intense depiction of a drought.
Segue o Seco paints a vivid picture of Brazil’s drought-stricken sertão, where everything feels seco (dry) — cattle, storms, farming tools, even people’s hopes. By repeating the word over and over, Marisa Monte lets us taste the dust and feel the weariness of a land and a population that keep moving forward without realizing that the very road beneath their feet is cracked and barren. The line “a água que secar será um tiro seco” hints that, when the last drop is gone, desperation can explode like a gunshot. Drought here is not only about weather; it is a symbol of social neglect, poverty, and the slow erosion of dreams.
Yet behind the cracked earth there is a persistent prayer: “Ô, chuva, vem me dizer” — “Oh, rain, come tell me.” The singer begs the clouds for relief and wonders whether the people “up there” (political leaders? the heavens?) are lonely, silent, or simply indifferent. Each imagined cause for rain — Saint Peter’s tears, a broken heart, coconuts spilling their water — reminds us that human emotion and natural forces are intertwined. In the end the song is both a protest and a hopeful chant: it exposes the harsh reality of drought while calling for compassion, solidarity, and the life-giving water that can reset destiny.
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.