“He didn’t think Serafim Saudade was funny”: how Herman José became closer to Marco Paulo
Comedian Herman José today mourned the death of singer Marco Paulo, remembering the singer’s encounter at a show with the character Serafim Saudade, after overcoming the “initial rejection” of the caricature.
“Our relationship is very funny because it started with some tension: he didn’t think the caricature I made of him with the character Serafim Saudade was funny”, he reported, speaking to the Lusa agency.
“At the time [da criação do personagem Serafim Saudade] I even told him: ‘Don’t worry, this is more Dino Meira [1940-1993]it has nothing to do with you'”, Herman José also recalled, adding that, over time, Marco Paulo “realized that the character functioned much more as a tribute than as a criticism”.
Both – Marco Paulo and Serafim Saudade – would meet on stage, at a show in Montemor-o-Novo, in Alentejo: “It was a reunion”, commented Herman José, who started to maintain “very cordial relations” with the singer. “We became closer and closer and, in the final phase, I even went to his program at [estação de televisão] SIC. The unequal fight he had against the disease made a big impression on me”, the comedian further lamented to Lusa.
Herman José recalled that Marco Paulo’s repertoire “was adapted from international hits, but he continually had the gift – with an unusual voice and extraordinary musicality – of creating versions that always won. If we listen to the originals, they are always more weaker than Marco Paulo’s versions”, said the 70-year-old author, actor and musician.
He gave as an example the song ‘Our Lady’, by Brazilian singer Roberto Carlos, which “gains in Marco Paulo a strength that the original does not have”, or even the song ‘Maravilhoso Coração’, by Spanish artist Rafael, “which is much more fragile”. “He had an unusual voice, with an unmistakable and globally rare timbre. That voice would work in any country in the world”, said Herman José, highlighting the natural “ability to improve” the originals.
The singer, whose career was linked for around 34 years to the music producer Mário Martins, on the Valentim de Carvalho record label, built a repertoire mainly of versions in Portuguese, having opted for an acting model based on names such as Tony de Matos (1924 -1989), Rui Mascarenhas (1929-1987) and António Calvário (1938).
Marco Paulo was born on January 21, 1945, in Mourão, in the district of Évora, settling with his family in Alenquer, in the district of Lisbon, in the late 1950s, and then in Barreiro, in the 1960s. In May 2022, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, decorated the singer with the Order of Infante D. Henrique, for his 50-year career, in a ceremony at the Palácio de Belém, in Lisbon.
