Column by Paulo Coelho. Original title: O Grupo Baiano morreu, salve os Baianos. Pdf, 5 pages.

Grupo Baiano is dead, long live the Baianos

A few days ago, a composer and singer from Ceará declared once again: “the Grupo Baiano needs to be replaced by new people”. Belchior, also from Ceará, attributes a song to “an old Bahian composer who said that everything is divine and wonderful”. These two, together with Ednardo “Pavão Misterioso”, formed the now extinct Pessoal do Ceará, and for a time the public was hopeful, thinking they found in the group the same renewing impulse that made the Baianos renew popular Brazilian music. However, apart from complaints, and some sporadic successes, only Belchior achieved a place of greater prominence in the music scene, which, according to Fagner, is still the privilege of Grupo Baiano. But where are the Grupo Baiano?