Marcelo Cavalcante

Marcelo Cavalcante came up in Juazeiro do Norte, a city in northeastern Brazil, where he started playing music around age 15. He formed a band called Cheiro Verde, which later gave its name to one of his popular songs. His first album came out in 2009, and he's put out several more since then, including Cheiro Verde in 2012 and Raízes do Forró in 2022.

His music draws from forró and baião, two regional styles from that part of Brazil. Songs like Alto do Bonsucesso and Cidade Esperança have a rhythmic, grounded feel that connects back to those roots. He writes his own material, and the lyrics often lean toward everyday life rather than grand statements.

In 2014, there was some noise about plagiarism claims, which he denied. The details are thin, and it didn't seem to slow him down much. He kept recording, and his band has stayed with him through most of it. The work is steady, not flashy, and that's probably how he prefers it.