With its repetitive rhythm bordering on obsession, but at the same time catchy and contagious, Ai se eu te pego (translatable into Ah, if I catch you) has climbed the charts all over the world in just a few weeks, undermining the hits of the big likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Lady Gaga.
A real musical phenomenon that has also attracted the attention of the famous American magazine Forbes which indicated Michel Teló as the possible heir, at least in terms of success, of the great Carmen Miranda, the singer and actress (actually born in Portugal) who enchanted the United States between the 30s and 50s with her voice and her floral choreographies which then paved the way in the years following the Brazilian tropicalist movement.
Teló's is the classic tale of the boy from the suburbs who with study, commitment and willpower has become a national star of the genre sertanejo, the green and gold country: 30 years old, the son of a modest family of bakers in southern Brazil, with a cachet of around 70 euros per concert, he is currently one of the highest paid singers in the country.
His video clip has broken all records: now traveling towards 100 million views on Youtube and Aí se eu te pego became the most listened Brazilian song on the net. It has been translated into dozens of languages, while covers and parodies are countless.
Singer-songwriter since he was 12 years old, Michel Teló, under contract with Universal Music, has recently become a money machine: winner of the Brazilian Golden Record, in 2011 he performed 220 concerts and in the last 20 months he was estimated to have earned $18 million.
And the forecasts for 2012 promise to be even brighter thanks also to the advertising that the biggest stars of international sport, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Nadal, passing by the stars of the NBA, they have done it all over the world. The result was immediate: in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Argentina the single jumped to the top of the charts and now Teló is preparing to launch an English version that will take him on tour in Europe.
2012 will tell us if Brazil will explode internationally not only as an economic power but also as a new hotbed of talent. In fact, if we exclude the footballers Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, and the model Gisele Bundchen, not since the days of Carmen Miranda has there been a musical phenomenon of this magnitude. Only 2012 will tell us if the country boy, who dreams of dueting with Shakira, was just a meteor or if he will turn into a real star.
Read the news on Forbes
