Belchior: the Brazilian maestro who simply disappeared
It’s not unusual to go a few years without hearing from a musician or artist, leading you to find yourself thinking, “I wonder what happened to them?”. In the case of Belchior, however, that question is much more serious. Although not incredibly well-known in the English-speaking world, Belchior is one of Brazil’s most popular artists, at least he was until his mysterious disappearance.
Belchior, the stage name of Antônio Carlos Belchior, rose to fame during the 1970s. Hailed as one of the most influential artists in Brazilian musical history, his 1976 album Alucinação greatly impacted the post-Bossa Nova era of the country’s popular music.
The folk singer became known for his unique style, which is often attributed to the ‘MPB’ genre. Meaning ‘Música popular Brasileira’, the genre is characterised by blending traditional and regional Brazilian music styles, such as samba, with more modern influences of jazz and rock. Belchior is perhaps the most well-known and authoritative figure when it comes to MPB, though his music remained popular long after the scene had peaked.
The Sobral-born composer managed to capitalise on his success in the 1970s, remaining admired across Brazil for his MPB folk tunes for the rest of the 20th century. Though he never managed to eclipse the success of Alucinação, Belchior continued to release music. In 2008, he released his last album, Sempre, to an admirable amount of commercial and critical success in Brazil. However, the artist was unable to continue that success because, shortly after the album dropped, Belchior disappeared.
Reports from 2009 offer a great deal of speculation over the whereabouts of the composer; some suggested he had fled Brazil to Uruguay, whereas others thought he might be secretly translating the 14th-century narrative poem The Divine Comedy into Portuguese. The disappearance gripped Brazil, with countless bloggers and journalists reporting possible sightings or drumming up conspiracies on his potential whereabouts. Even his own family were none the wiser to where Belchior had gone, with his friends and colleagues unable to reach him by telephone.
In reality, Belchior’s disappearance was a lot less drastic. As summer drew to a close in 2009, the Brazilian television programme Fantástico reported that they had found the maestro, alive and well, living in Uruguay with his second wife. He told the programme that he was simply “resting, composing and thinking about life”. Case closed, or so it seemed. Only a couple of years later, the elusive Belchior disappeared once more. This time, the musician vanished from a four-star hotel in Uruguay with his wife in 2012. In a very strange move, the composer even left unpaid bills and personal objects behind.
Belchior’s whereabouts remained a mystery for years. Five years after his second disappearance, the legendary musician was found dead of a heart attack in Rio Grande do Sul. Nevertheless, Brazilian music fans remain captivated by his unique ability to vanish, a feat that many stars of his calibre could only dream of pulling off.
