Biography:

Edivaldo Souza , known by the stage names Edy , Edy Souza – at the beginning of his career – and Edy Star ( Juazeiro , January 10, 1938 ― São Paulo , April 24 , 2025 ), was a Brazilian singer , composer , actor , dancer , theater producer , television presenter and visual artist . He began his career as a teenager, participating in the program A Hora da Criança , on Rádio Sociedade da Bahia . As an adult, he worked with circus , theater , music , radio and television , always maintaining a mocking style, close to chanchada , cabaret and revue theater , his greatest influences on his artistic career. In the late 1960s , he began the transition from the Northeast to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo , which were becoming very important cultural centers, to the detriment of local and regional scenes.

Thus, from the following decade onwards , he became involved in several avant-garde works: first, he participated in the album Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista Apresenta Sessão das 10 , with Raul Seixas , Sérgio Sampaio and Miriam Batucada ; second, he became a great sensation in marginal circles for his outrageous performances that challenged the limits of sexuality, initially in the then-degraded area of ​​Praça Mauá , in Rio de Janeiro, and later began performing in places frequented by high society, such as the Number One and Up’s nightclubs ; third, he participated in the highly successful national production of the play The Rocky Horror Show , by Richard O’Brien . The success paved the way for the recording of an original album, Sweet Edy . Edy worked in theater and television for the rest of the decade and the next . In the 1990s , the artist moved to Spain , where he continued to work in theater and as a nightclub producer. After almost 20 years in that country, Edy returned to Brazil and resumed his singing career, with performances, the re-release of his first album, and the release of a new album, Cabaré Star , in 2017.

Edy was known for having been part of the Society of the Great Order of Kavernists, as well as for his performances that mixed various mocking styles of theater and that challenged social conventions regarding sexuality. For this reason, he became famous for having been the first Brazilian artist to reveal his homosexuality .

The son of a clerk from an upper-middle-class family in Salvador and a housewife from a poor family in Juazeiro . His father’s hobbies were amateur photography and soccer refereeing , and it was while refereeing a match in Juazeiro that he met his mother. His father’s family did not approve of the relationship due to his mother’s socioeconomic status, but his father insisted on the union, but he grew tired and moved to her city. Edivaldo was born in 1938 and, after he was 1 year old, he moved with his family to the state capital . [ 1 ]

With his brothers, the artist had a pleasant childhood in the capital of Bahia, living in a large house with a backyard full of banana , coconut and mango trees . One of his passions in childhood was reading. He read several comic books and magazines such as: O Tico Tico , Capitão Marvel Edição Maravilhosa , Almanaque Vida Infantil , Revista da Semana , Revista o Cruzeiro and Revista do Globo . At the age of 17, he had already read almost all the classic youth literature such as: Alexandre Dumas , Érico Veríssimo , Monteiro Lobato , Charles Dickens , Edgar Allan Poe and Jorge Amado . [ 1 ]

Edivaldo’s other passion during his childhood was music. At home, he listened mainly to the Nacional and Mayrink Veiga radio stations , as well as local programs on Rádio Sociedade da Bahia – especially A Hora da Criança . His father even used to take him to the studios of the program, which was run by the teacher and journalist Adroaldo Ribeiro Costa . When he got home, he improvised a microphone and stage in the backyard and sang with his brothers. His first experience on stage happened when he was 13 years old. His father watched him in improvised singing sessions and signed him up to participate in the program A Hora da Criança . During the rehearsals held at Passeio Público in Salvador , he took theater classes and participated in the production of operettas based on the work of Monteiro Lobato. [ 1 ]

In addition to his two passions, Edivaldo always loved drawing, which would lead him to pursue a parallel career as a visual artist . [ 1 ]

At the age of twenty, he took a course at Petrobras and became an oil specialist , working at the company as an assistant and production technician until 1961. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]

In the early 1960s , Edy received the nickname Bofélia in homage to the character Ofélia , played by actress Sônia Mamede in the program Balança Mas Não Cai , broadcast by Rádio Nacional at the time. [ 3 ]

Career

The beginning: circus, painting, music, radio, theater and television

Before working at Petrobrás, Edy had already participated in performances at a circus , against the wishes of his father who did not want his son to pursue an artistic career. After resigning from the state-owned company in 1961, he began to exhibit his paintings in the capital of Bahia, using the stage name Edy Souza . He was living in the Boa Viagem neighborhood when he met Waldir Serrão and joined his rock and roll club , the Elvis Club Rock , and got to know a young Raul Seixas , who was only 15 years old at the time, superficially. He even rehearsed rock with Waldir Serrão and keyboardist Thildo Gama , participating in several performances with the “rock gang” in Salvador. At the same time, he met Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethânia , and began to attend parties with the two brothers. In 1964, he got in touch with Gilberto Gil , already known as a singer who performed on TV Itapoan . The two would even compose a song together, “Procissão”, which would be the first single released by Gil and would appear on his first album, Louvação , released in 1967 – although the co-authorship would only be acknowledged by Gil decades later. [ 4 ] It wasn’t long before Edy began performing with Caetano, Maria Bethânia, Gil and the young people who liked bossa nova in Bahia – which also included Gal Costa and Tom Zé . However, when the Bahians presented the show Nós, Por Exemplo… , which inaugurated the Teatro Vila Velha – which would become the great stage for this intellectualized Bahian youth – Edy was not part of it, performing a folklore show at Galeria Bazarte , just a few blocks away. Although Augusto Boal saw both performances, Edy was not called when the playwright took the Bahians to São Paulo to star in the show Arena Canta Bahia , at Teatro de Arena . [ 5 ] Therefore, Edy remained, from the beginning, transversal to the Bahian cultural movements, participating both in the “rock gang”, of Waldir Serrão and Raulzito; and in the “Vila Velha gang”, of Gil and Caetano. [ 3 ]

He then joined the Companhia Baiana de Comédias , performing plays in the interior of several northeastern states, which took him to Pernambuco where, from 1966 onwards, he gradually settled in the city of Olinda . At the same time, he tried to pursue a career as an artistic producer at TV Jornal do Commercio , in Recife. His career took a turn when he starred – together with Teca Calazans – in the popular musical Memórias de Dois Cantadores , staged in Recife , in August 1967, and accompanied by musicians Marcelo Melo and Geraldo Azevedo (on guitars ), Generino (on flute ) and Naná Vasconcelos (on percussion ). The play won several awards at the 1968 Pernambuco Theater Festival, such as Best Musical , Best Costume Design and Best Ensemble . [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] The success of the musical he starred in in Recife opened the doors for Edy to be invited, together with Naná Vasconcelos, to go to Rio de Janeiro to defend the song “Dia Cheio De Ogum”, by the composer Capiba , at the festival O Brasil Canta no Rio , in December 1968. Although the song did not win at the festival, it made it to the finals. And there was the release of an album with the 12 finalists by the record company CID (Itamaraty label), Edy’s recording debut. [ 10 ]

At the end of 1967, Edy returned to Bahia and became an artistic producer and presenter on TV Itapoan, in Salvador. There, producing and presenting the program Poder Jovem , he saw some new names emerge, such as Pepeu Gomes and Moraes Moreira – who had not yet founded Novos Baianos , Rosa Passos , Maria Creuza and Antônio Carlos e Jocáfi . [ 11 ] In addition, he began to appear singing on Waldir Serrão’s program, on Rádio Cultura . It was on this program that he got to know Raul Seixas better, who led the group Raulzito e os Panteras , a rock band much in demand in Bahia, both for performances and to accompany other artists, especially those linked to Jovem Guarda on tour in the state. Edy became successful on the radio with a repertoire based on Jerry Adriani , Wanderley Cardoso , José Feliciano and Trini Lopez , with an effeminate version of the song La Bamba as the main song , all accompanied by the Panteras, who did not like Edy’s gay mannerisms. However, after a difficult start, Raul and Edy soon became good friends. [ 12 ] In 1968, Raul Seixas went to Rio, at the invitation of Jerry Adriani, to record an album with his group, but failed to achieve any success. However, after a brief period back in Bahia, he returned to Rio to work as a producer for Discos CBS , again thanks to Jerry Adriani. Edy continued to divide his time between radio and TV in Bahia and, during this period, he participated in several parties with a wide range of artists, having personally met Ravi Shankar , Janis Joplin , Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull . [ 2 ] [ 6 ]

Credits: