Beto Siviero

Beto Siviero came up in Ceará, a northeastern Brazilian state where forró has deep roots. He started playing guitar and accordion, taking cues from older musicians like Luiz Gonzaga and Jackson do Pandeiro.

In the early 1980s he put out his first album, which shared its name with the track that would become his calling card: "O Pum da Vaca." The song's silly premise, a story about a cow's flatulence, caught on quickly and made him a familiar name across Brazil.

His music leaned into humor and playful rhythms, which sometimes drew criticism for being too crude or leaning into stereotypes. Siviero generally shrugged that off, treating the cheekiness as part of forró's tradition rather than something to apologize for.