Preta Gil - Biography

Biography

In 1974, Preta Gil's father, the famous singer Gilberto Gil, went to a government office to register his daughter's name after his own mother's name. Upon arrival, the clerk informed him he was unable to register Preta as a name for his daughter. Gilberto Gil began to protest, "Why not? There's Bianca (White), Blanca (White), Clara (Clear) and Rosa (Rose) . . . why can't Preta (Black) be a name?". The clerk conceded, only if the child was registered along with a Catholic name. So Preta Gil was registered "Preta Maria".

Preta lived in Rio, and at the age of one, she moved to Salvador. Her mother, Sandra, soon after had another daughter named "Maria". Gil always believed it was lack of creativity. She had an older brother, "Pedro", who was born in London, at the time of her father's famous exile from Brazil during the Military Dictatorship, along with friend and singer Caetano.

Sandra's mother, was also the mother of Andréa Gadelha, known as Dedé wife of Caetano. In the situation faced, she believed her two daughters married crazy men. Gilberto Gil and Veloso were both exiled, went to live in London, and Preta's grandmother was left to raise the children. Preta has great admiration for her grandmother, who stood firm in a chaotic time in the family's life.

Since childhood she has had a very vivid imagination. She once had an imaginary puppy, when she was five. When her father was making a record in Los Angeles with Sergio Mendes, the family moved to California where they lived for eight months. Preta's mother joked, calling the airplane that took them to L.A. as a slave ship, since she and the children were all black. Petra's siblings, Maria and Pedro, both had curly hair. Preta has straight hair. Caetano used to call her Filipina.

She was in Rio de Janeiro at the height of the 1980s. Bombando, Blitz, Paralamas, Barão Vermelho, Lulu Santos. The Brazilian music scene in the 1980s was something very striking. As a daughter of one of Brazil's music icons, Preta had backstage access to the craziness that made up that scene. "It all made me crazy, loved this environment, I felt comfortable. The stage was one thing that attracted me a lot.".

She wanted to be "Chacrete" (the famous TV show of Chacrinha) and every Saturday in the theater Fenix, the Botanical Garden. Preta's father, at that time, exploded in the charts, along with her uncle Veloso, and her godmother Gal Costa, who always went to the show Chacrinha. Preta would always beg her mother to ask her father, her uncle and even her godmother, who always went, to attend the tapings of the show. And one day, she was permitted to attend. She went into her uncle Caetano's dressing room, saw all the costumes, instruments and thought he was the male version of Carmen Miranda. When the taping began, she was in a corner and watched the magic happen. She loved Elke Maravilha a constant fixture in the show. That was the environment of the 1980s, effervescent, colorful, and full of life. This was when she also decided to be a singer and an actress. She would imitate her godmother, Gal Costa, as well as other reputable and talented singers and actresses like Rita Lee and Elba Ramalho, whom she loved and attended all her concerts.