Eduardo e Mônica

"Eduardo e Mônica"
Single by Legião Urbana
from the album Dois
Released1986
Recorded1986
Genre
Length4:31
LabelEMI-Odeon
Songwriter(s)Dado Villa-Lobos, Renato Russo, Marcelo Bonfá
Producer(s)Mayrton Bahia
Legião Urbana singles chronology
"Tempo Perdido"
(1986)
"Eduardo e Mônica"
(1986)
"Quase Sem Querer"
(1986)

"Eduardo e Mônica" (Eduardo and Monica) is a song from Brazilian rock band Legião Urbana's 1986 album Dois, released as promo single. It tells a romantic story centered on a couple formed by the 16-year-old Eduardo and the older college student Mônica, who are very different from each other.[1]

Writing and theme

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The song had already been recorded in 1982, when Russo performed alone with his acoustic guitar under the moniker "O Trovador Solitário" (The Solitary Troubadour), on a cassette tape that would be later recovered and released along with other songs on his posthumous solo album O Trovador Solitário.[2]

This version has a different ending than the one from the album. In the latter, it is stated that in a certain vacation period, the family could not travel because the son was retaking a class in school.[a][3] In the original version, the couple's son is still yet to be born and that they didn't get married in a church, but at Eduardo's ranch. Some verses were already scratched by then: "With an Indian flutist who marked the time signature/ All all friends..."[2] They built a house somewhere close to the sea and went to Bahia, Ouro Preto and Rio de Janeiro. Eduardo got a job at Banco Central and Mônica is a professor.[3]

A 2016 article by science magazine Superinteressante suggested that the couple was unlikely to have a long-lasting relationship, based on what the verses say about them and analyzing such info against diverse scientific researches on reasons why couples break up.[1]

In other media

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The song inspired a play by Adolar Gangorra in which he depicts Eduardo as a victim of "a newspapers' culture pages pop culture, which Monica makes him follow".[4]

A film based on the song was announced in 2019 with Gabriel Leone and Alice Braga on the titular roles. It will be directed by René Sampaio, who also directed Brazilian Western, another film based on a Legião Urbana song. The film was due on 11 June 2020 and it was screened at the 2020 edition of Miami International Film Festival,[5] before it was cancelled following the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] By June, its premiere date was still uncertain due to the pandemic.[7]

Ads

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In 2001, fragments of the song were used in an ad by telecommunications company ATL (currently Claro).[8] Later, on 7 June 2011, the song's 25th anniversary, a short clip was developed by another telecommunications company, Vivo.[9] The clip, released on YouTube a few days before Valentine's Day in Brazil, is a tribute to the date and has the song as its soundtrack.[9]

Notes

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  1. ^ "Recuperação" is a method of school grade recovering common in Brazilian schools. Should a student fail a particular subject, they have a chance of raising it to approval level by taking some extra classes and doing more tests. It is somehow similar to Summer schools in the United States. It's also not unlike the practice of taking remedial tests in north American colleges.

References

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  1. ^ a b Leonardi, Ana Carolina (21 October 2016). "PPor que Eduardo e Mônica não teriam dado certo, segundo a ciência". Superinteressante (in Portuguese). Editora Abril. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b Fuscaldo 2016, p. 200.
  3. ^ a b Cozer, Raquel (13 July 2008). "CD traz Renato Russo antes da Legião". Folha de S.Paulo. Grupo Folha. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  4. ^ Rodrigo Machadom, para o Overmundo (2 October 2010). "Eduardo e Mônica". Overmundo.com.br. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
  5. ^ Fonseca, Rodrigo (11 March 2020). "'Eduardo e Mônica' ganha o mundo". O Estado de S. Paulo. Grupo Estado. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  6. ^ Feinberg, Scott (12 March 2020). "Miami Film Festival, Already in Progress, Is Canceled". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  7. ^ "Atores e diretor de 'Eduardo e Mônica' participam de live da Globo Filmes". O Liberal (in Portuguese). Grupo Liberal. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  8. ^ ""Eduardo e Mônica" já foi usada em filme de outra marca de celular"". Exame.com. 2011.
  9. ^ a b "Vivo cria videoclipe para "Eduardo e Monica", da Legião Urbana". Exame.com. 8 June 2011. Archived from the original on 2014-01-17. Retrieved 10 June 2011.