Salve! This is a bonus episode available for all!

Every episode is a different song. This is the song today:

"Boas Festas" written by Assis Valente

This is the quintessential Brazilian Christmas song. Samba songwriter Assis Valente wrote it in 1932 while living alone, far from his family, in a boarding house in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. Sad and nostalgic, the song challenges Santa Claus (Papai Noel) to deliver the ultimate gift: happiness. Caetano Veloso, who later recorded “Boas Festas,” has argued that it is the Christmas song that best encapsulates the Brazilian spirit, as its lyrics openly acknowledge the excluded. Its tone is deeply connected to Valente’s own troubled life, marked by poverty, illness, and repeated personal crises.