Ney Matogrosso

Ney de Souza Pereira (born 1 August 1941), known professionally as Ney Matogrosso (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈnej ˌmatuˈɡɾosu]), is a Brazilian singer who is distinguished for his uncommon countertenor voice. He was ranked by Rolling Stone as the third greatest Latin American singer of all time.

Son of military man Antônio Mattogrosso Pereira (July 13, 1916 - Dec 21, 1985) and Beita de Souza Pereira (b. Oct 5, 1922), Ney had a nomadic childhood, moving from city to city frequently. The stage name he later adopted was taken from his own family, since his father has "Matogrosso" in his name and is a reference to his birth state, Mato Grosso do Sul. Matogrosso enlisted in the Brazilian Air Force at the age of 17, being later transferred to Brasília. Within a few years, Matogrosso started singing in a vocal quartet, performing at college festivals throughout Brazil. With the hope of becoming a stage actor, Ney moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1966, where he lived as a hippie and made ends meet by selling arts and crafts. In 1971, he moved to São Paulo, adopting the artistic name Ney Matogrosso, and joined the glam rock group Secos & Molhados, which in less than 18 months became a phenomenon, selling 1 million records. Endowed with a unique counter-tenor voice and a striking stage presence, Ney's career soared. Matogrosso was the singer and interpreter in the group Secos & Molhados. One of the most interesting moments in their music was "the video-clip Flores Astrais (1974), where Matogrosso plays the role of a hypersensual character on a space-like stage. Matogrosso turned his male physiognomy and his androgynous performance into a landmark of counterculture during the most intensively repressive years of military."

After the group Secos e Molhados split up, Ney pursued a successful solo career in Brazil and abroad, obtaining several Gold and Platinum records.

Famous for his outlandish costumes, make-up, daring movements and singular high-pitched voice, Ney has always been regarded as a controversial character.

According to the Brown University Center for Digital Scholarship, "Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth Century Brazil": "By late 1960s and early 1970s, international countercultural ideas held significant sway over Brazil's urban middle-class youth. Among the counterculture's many challenges to societal norms was the destabilization of sexual codes and gender norms. As traditional insistence of premarital virginity and normative heterosexuality became regarded as antiquated and repressive, Brazil's biggest stars projected unabashed sexuality and were rumored to have homosexual affairs. Singers such as Caetano Veloso and Ney Matogrosso presented themselves as androgynous, gender-bending performers and raised important questions in society about gender roles and identities. Indeed, the overwhelming popularity of such performers reflected a growing societal acceptance of deviance from traditional Brazilian constructions gender and sexuality." Further down the page, the study states "Ney Matogrosso, on the other hand, was far less subtle in his subversion of traditional notions of gender and sexuality. Ney often sang entire songs in falsetto, used dramatic makeup and exotic costumes, and danced in a style that was as traditionally feminine as it was traditionally masculine. In 1978, Ney clarified his homosexuality in a magazine interview, and, in the face of widespread homophobia, he remained one of Brazil's most famous celebrities"

In the 1970s he released a series of essential albums, both for his career and Brazilian popular music. They are: "Pecado"(Sin), "Bandido", "Feitiço"(Spell) and "Seu Tipo"(Your type). In that period, Ney toured round United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Europe and Israel, performing hits like "América do Sul" (Paulo Machado), "Bandolero" (Lucinha) and "Não Existe Pecado ao Sul do Equador" (Chico Buarque/ Ruy Guerra). In the 1980s, Ney recorded "Por Debaixo dos Panos" (Cecéu), "Tanto Amar" (Chico Buarque), "Ando Meio Desligado" (Os Mutantes), "Sangue Latino" (João Ricardo/ Paulo Mendonça) and "Vereda Tropical" (Gonzalo Curiel).

Ney Matogrosso opened the show on the very first day of the first Rock in Rio Concert on 11 January 1985. He sang his hit song "América do Sul". This was very significant to the hundreds of thousands of attendees in that this concert series was a celebration of the downfall of the brutal dictatorship that had been in place since 1964. He symbolically held the jawbone of an ass during his iconic performance."Ney Matogrosso opened the evening with a general call: "God save the South America!". With his Indian-art deco look, wearing a G-string, a fancy headdress and a jawbone on his hand, Ney was the neanderthal man to a new era, at ease in such a huge stage"

In 1986, Matogrosso performed for the first time without wearing fancy costumes, adopting a low-key image. Since then, he has focused on his work as a singer, recording from the traditional repertoire of MPB (Música popular brasileira – the so-called Brazilian pop music genre). Recordings in this genre first appeared on the album "O Pescador de Pérolas" (1986), which featured "O Mundo É um Moinho" (Cartola), "Dora" (Dorival Caymmi), "Da Cor do Pecado" (Bororó) and "Aquarela do Brasil" (Ary Barroso).