O Engraxador Lyrics in English Luisa Sobral

O Engraxador paints a cinematic snapshot of a shoeshiner who has spent so many hours on the sidewalk that he can recognise every pair of hurried legs and every gossip-loving neighbour at a glance. Fashion evolves from polished buckles to pink Velcro and glossy snakeskin boots, yet his small corner of the world stays the same. From this low wooden chair—slick with layers of old polish—he becomes an almost invisible observer of the city’s secrets.

But while his hands buff leather, his mind slips into velvet seats and footlights. In a vivid daydream, he trades his work apron for a crisp shirt and ceremonial tie, declaiming Shakespeare in Portuguese on a grand English stage. The crowd rises, the applause is deafening, tears glisten on his satin tie… until a customer’s shoe runs out of polish and snaps him back to reality. Luísa Sobral’s song celebrates the quiet power of imagination to lift an everyday worker above the grind, even if only for a heartbeat, while gently hinting at the bittersweet gap between who we are and who we long to be.