"Aquarela do Brasil" (English: Watercolor of Brazil), known in the English-speaking world simply as "Brazil", is one of the most famous Brazilian songs of all time, written by Ary Barroso in 1939.

Ary Barroso wrote "Aquarela do Brasil" in early 1939, when he was prevented from leaving his home one night due to a heavy storm. Its title, a reference to watercolor painting, is a clear reference to the rain. He also wrote "Três Lágrimas" (English: Three teardrops) on that same night, before the rain ended.

Describing the song in an interview to Marisa Lira, of the newspaper Diário de Notícias, Barroso said that he wanted to "free the samba away from the tragedies of life, of the sensual scenario already so explored". According to the composer, he "felt all the greatness, the value and the wealth of our land", reliving "the tradition of the national panels".

Initially, he wrote the first chords, which he defined as "vibrant", and a "plangent of emotions". The original beat "sang on [his] imagination, highlighting the sound of the rain, on syncope beats of fantastic tambourins". According to him, "the rest came naturally, music and lyrics at once". He declared to have felt like another person after writing the song.

Brazil ⁱ/brəˈzɪl/ (Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil,  listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.

Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.

Geoff Muldaur (born August 12, 1943, Pelham, New York, United States) is an American founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band of Cambridge, Massachusetts; a member of Paul Butterfield's Better Days; and an accomplished solo guitarist, singer, and songwriter.

Emerging from the Kweskin band with his then-wife, Maria Muldaur, he established an impressive reputation in the Boston, Massachusetts area in the 1960s and 1970s, followed by a move to the burgeoning folk, blues and folk-rock explosion in Woodstock, New York. He separated from his wife in 1972. He recorded with such artists as Bonnie Raitt, Eric Von Schmidt, and Jerry Garcia before ceasing to tour or record in the mid 1980s. During this period, he composed scores for film and television, winning an Emmy Award, and produced albums for lesser known musicians such as Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns and the Richard Greene String Quartet. In 1985, he performed a cover of Ary Barroso's Aquarela do Brasil specifically as the signature tune of Terry Gilliam's dystopian satire cult film Brazil. After he had not made any release for eleven years, Muldaur emerged in 1999 with the critically acclaimed album, The Secret Handshake.

Carlinhos Brown (born Antonio Carlos Santos de Freitas, November 23, 1962) is an Oscar-nominated Brazilian musician, songwriter and record producer from Salvador, Bahia. His musical style blends Tropicália, reggae, and traditional Brazilian percussion. He has also been nominated for an Academy Award for his musical contributions in Rio.

He founded Timbalada and Tribalistas, and is also a solo artist.

He was born in Candeal Pequeno, a small neighbourhood in the Brotas area of Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) to parents Renato and Madalena. In 1967 he was still a child when Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil (two 25-year-old musicians from Bahia) started a movement that would radically change Brazilian and popular music: Tropicália.

Osvaldo Alves da Silva (known as the Master of the Bongo) introduced him to the tradition of Brazilian folklore and its percussion: tambourine, drums and reco-reco. He soon learned all the secrets of the percussion instruments and developed a personal style he has never abandoned.

Xavier Cugat (Catalan pronunciation: [ʃəβiˈe kuˈɣat]) (1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman^{[citation needed]}. In New York, his was the leader of the resident orchestra at the Waldorf-Astoria before and after World War II.

Cugat was born as Francisco d'Asís Xavier Cugat Mingall de Bru i Deulofeu in Girona, Catalonia (Spain). His family emigrated to Cuba when Xavier was five. He was trained as a classical violinist and played with the Orchestra of the Teatro Nacional in Havana. On 6 July 1915, Cugat and his family arrived in New York as immigrant passengers on board the S.S. Havana.

Cugat was married five times. His first marriage was to Rita Montaner (1918–1920) ; this contradicts all authoritative biographical accounts of her^{[citation needed]}; his second was to Carmen Castillo (1929–1944); his third to Lorraine Allen (1947–52); his fourth to singer Abbe Lane (1952–64); and his fifth to Spanish guitarist and comic actress Charo (1966–78). His last marriage was the first in Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.^{[citation needed]}