TEL AVIV (JTA) — Brazil’s newly-appointed ambassador to Tel Aviv has praised the Israeli duo Static & Ben El Tavori, whose latest hit, with a title in Portuguese has taken Israel by storm.
Titled “Tudo Bom,” or “Everything is good” in Portuguese, the song has become a summer hit in Israel. The lyrics, full of words in Portuguese such as “Carnaval,” “favela,” “caipirinha” and “berimbau” as well as some full sentences in the language, tell the story of an Israeli guy flirting with a Brazilian girl.
“Every time someone here knows I’m Brazilian, the first thing they say is ‘Tudo Bom.’ Thank you for bringing a little bit of Brazil to Israel,” ambassador Paulo Cesar Meira de Vasconcellos said during a Thursday meeting at the embassy, which was recorded and posted on Facebook by the embassy, garnering over 3,000 views during the first two days.
Launched last month, the song’s video on YouTube has been viewed nearly 22 million times. “Tudo Bom” mixes Brazilian funk and samba with an Israeli Middle-Eastern rhythm.
The use of words in Portuguese has a reason. A few months ago, Static revealed he was adopted and it is possible that he was born in Brazil, where many Israeli couples adopted thousands of children in the 1980s and 1990s.
“They say that I have the Brazilian look, I identify with the culture, with the capoeira, I feel that there is a cultural proximity between the two countries, they are warm, they love music, the movement,” Static told Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, which published a half-page interview with him on Friday.
Ten days after its launch, the success of “Tudo Bom” was expanded by Brazilian blogger Felipe Neto, with 12 million followers on YouTube. He accidentally discovered the clip and recorded his positive reaction. Brazilians started writing rave reviews in the comments section of the duo’s page.
“What happened was something unusual. For me, it’s magical to receive such reactions from Brazilians,” Static told the newspaper.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
