Siro Pontes

Siro Pontes was born in Itiruçu, Bahia, and grew up hearing Brazilian folk music in church. He got his first guitar when he was twelve. In 1964, while working as a teacher in Maragogipe, he wrote the hymn "Glória, Glória, Glória a Deus Nos Altos Céus!" after what he described as a spiritual experience.

That song became his best-known work, appearing on his 1965 album Glória. He kept recording through the late 1960s and early 1970s, putting out albums like Louvai ao Senhor and Siro Pontes Canta os Reis. Some church figures at the time questioned whether his musical approach was too modern for sacred lyrics, but the hymn spread widely in Brazilian congregations anyway.