Alex Ferrari

Alex Ferrari was born in São Paulo in 1959. He started out singing with a band called Banda Leão in the early 1980s, playing bars and clubs around Brazil. His first solo album, 'Nosso Sonho,' came out in 1983.

A year later, he released 'Bara Bará Bere Berê,' a song that became a massive hit. It borrowed some rhythmic ideas from capoeira chants and caught on quickly across the country. The track's success led to international tours, though it also brought accusations that the melody was lifted from a traditional Bahian folk tune. Ferrari always denied that.

Other songs like 'Novinha Assanhada' and 'Fui Foda' kept his name in rotation on Brazilian radio through the '80s and beyond. He never quite matched the phenomenon of 'Bara Bará Bere Berê,' but that one track alone secured his place in the country's pop memory.