Gilberto Gil says “adeus” to ministerial post

Seminal Brazilian singer/songwriter Gilberto Gil quit from his post as culture minister after working for nearly five years. “I felt a big pressure on my artistic work that was accumulating,” Gil said as his third stab at resigning in less than a year was accepted by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva earlier today.

Despite being such a well-known performer, Gil’s musical career has always had a political slant since he helped found the Tropicalismo movement in the 1960's.

During Gil’s time as cultural minister, he promoted treasures such as capoeira and samba while bringing to light “neglected forms of cultural expression” like indigenous painting. At times he faced controversy such as when he backed the free online downloading of music. (Coincidentally, he publicly announced his resignation during “a conference on authorial rights in Rio de Janeiro.”)

Gil will continue to keep performing concerts worldwide and will surely promote unity via music as he did in one recent performance:

(…)"bringing people together"—and all the happy incongruities that old-fashioned ideal implies—has been Gil's tack for over 35 years…

(His) set fixated on themes of communication and interrelation. To start, his band built a spidery funk song from a ringtone (rather than the other way around), a gesture that encapsulated both his ruminative bent and his cheeky sensibility… His occasional corniness, though, makes him a more believably humanistic David Byrne: someone thrilled enough by the way people come together to join in, rather than organize a grant-funded multimedia installation about it.

Image- wired.com

Sources- AFP, BBC News, Bloomberg, Village Voice, Xinhua, PBS, cnet.com