Aquele Abraço

Gil wrote it in 1969, after his imprisonment, as he left Rio for Salvador. By his account the lyric was finished on a napkin on the plane, with the melody carried in his head because he had no instrument, and he has called the song a necessary catharsis. He recorded his voice and guitar in Salvador under house arrest, and Duprat and Chiquinho de Moraes completed the arrangement with Lanny Gordin, Sérgio Barroso and Wilson das Neves.

The lyric says goodbye to Rio and Brazil by naming people and places: Realengo, where he had been held, the fans of Flamengo, Chacrinha, the girls of the favelas, Portela and the Banda de Ipanema. It is dedicated to Dorival Caymmi, João Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, and has been read as an ironic farewell under censorship. The title was a catchphrase of the TV comedian Lilico, which Gil heard from his jailers, though he told O Pasquim in 1969 that he had never watched the show and that the phrase was much older. Released as a single in August 1969, it spent two months at number one in Brazil. When Rio's Museu da Imagem e do Som named it the best song of 1969, Gil, in exile, refused the award in O Pasquim. He accepted a Golfinho de Ouro from Tom Jobim in 1986.

Live

It is his most-performed song. setlist.fm first logs it at the Barra 69 farewell show with Caetano on 21 July 1969, and counts more than a hundred performances by Gil. It closed his Royal Albert Hall show in 2023 and was the last song of the Tempo Rei tour in 2026. Marisa Monte and Seu Jorge sang it at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. Bow Wow Wow turned it into an English song, and Elis Regina, Tim Maia, Legião Urbana and Quarteto em Cy are among the others who have recorded it. The upload in the hypersongs web is the original 1969 album version.