"Alegria, Alegria" is a song written and performed by Caetano Veloso

Caetano Veloso

Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...

. Often referred to as "the Brazilian anthem of 1967", it later appeared in his influential eponymous 1968 album

Caetano Veloso (1968 album)

Caetano Veloso is an album released in Brazil in 1968 by the artist of the same name, being one of the first Tropicália efforts. It has arrangements by Júlio Medaglia, Damiano Cozzella, and Sandino Hohagen, and it is very eclectic, showing the "Antropofagia" aspect of the Tropicália movement,...

.

At first booed at the 1967 Rede Record

Rede Record

Rede Record de Televisão is a Brazilian television network, founded in 1953 by Paulo Machado de Carvalho, also founder of Rádio Record. Currently it is owned by businessman Edir Macedo, founder and bishop of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Since 2007 it is Brazil's second largest...

 festival for its use of electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

s, Caetano's interpretation and attitude eventually won the audience over. "Alegria, Alegria" placed fourth at the festival.

Although "alegria" means "joy" or "happiness" in Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....

, the theme of the song is freedom.

"Alegria, Alegria" was the soundtrack of the title sequence of 1992 miniseries Anos Rebeldes.

"Alegria, Alegria" is, alongside Daniela Mercury

Daniela Mercury

Daniela Mercury , is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Brazilian axé, samba-reggae and MPB singer, songwriter and record producer. Since her breakthrough, Mercury has become one of the best known Brazilian female singers, selling over 20 million albums worldwide...

's "O Canto da Cidade

O Canto da Cidade (song)

"O Canto da Cidade" is an axé song co-written and performed by Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury. It is the title track and main single of her second studio album, which was released in 1992...

", remembered by the population for the 1992 Fernando Collor de Mello

Fernando Collor de Mello

Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello was the 32nd president of Brazil from 1990 to 1992, when he resigned in a failed attempt to stop his trial of impeachment by the Brazilian Senate...

 impeachment

Impeachment

Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....

. The miniseries mentioned above was a hit, and "Alegria, alegria" was sung during public manifestations in favor of the impeach. Ironically, Mercury recorded the song in an album celebrating the thirty years of the Tropicália movement.