# 1124. Pimba na Wikipédia

Pimba is a Portuguese term used for a variety of popular Portuguese solo singers and bands.

The Pimba groups and musicians/singers are deeply influenced by the rural areas of the country and the emigration phenomena which permeated Portuguese society from 1900 to the 80´s.

Pimba music and musicians/groups are seen by some to be inferior to others dedicated to more mainstream genres, although often more popular.

They can be said to use the same themes as folklore and target the same audience, though some Pimba singers shun the title and call themselves "poetic" or "romantic artists". A parallel between Pimba and American Country music audiences can be drawn, nevertheless the lyrics of Country music are of a more elevated nature.

The so called Rei do Pimba ("King of Pimba") was—and according to some still is—Emanuel, a musician/singer who emphasizes topics such as love and sex in its strongly satirical songs. That is due to his hit song Nós Pimba (which translates to "We Pimba", where "pimba", having innumerous meanings in Portuguese, is meant as "have sex") coining the genre. Furthermore, the Rainha do Pimba ("Queen of Pimba") is the well-known by the Portuguese people Ágata, and the Príncipe do Pimba ("Prince of Pimba") is Saúl, who whilst very young performed the Pimba hit O Bacalhau Quer Alho ("The Codfish Wants Garlic"—"quer alho" when spoken sounds as a swearword in Portuguese).

Many other Pimba songs resort to these allusions to swearwords or other taboo topics, seemingly to gain popularity, for instance the hit singles Queres Ketchup, Maria? ("Do You Want Ketchup, Mary?"—when spoken often sounds as "do you want me to suck you, Mary?") and "É o ECU!" ("It's the ECU!" (ECU was the first name thought for the Euro)—when spoken sounds like "it's the bottom!"). The latter song was so popular by the time the EU currency had to be named, that Portugal made pressure to change its name to Euro or Real during a meeting in Madrid to decide whether "ECU" should be kept.

Another great and very well known Pimba artist is Quim Barreiros. His carrer started even before Emanuel, being one of the first artists of this kind, if not the first documented case of Pimba. Mr. Barreiros enjoys a cult-like following among college students and performs each year in the most reputed universities of Portugal. Another not as known but nearly as old Pimba band is Trio Odemira.

One of Quim Barreiros' biggest hit was "A Garagem da Vizinha" (The Neighbour's Garage), but he is also known for hits such as "A Cabritinha" (The Little Goat) about a man who enjoyed sucking his little goat's tits and "Mariazinha", when he asked this woman, "Maria" (or Mary), to let him go to the kitchen to smell her "codfish"... most of his songs are full of ambiguous words, often filled with an obvious sexual conotation, very notable in the song "A Garagem da Vizinha". Here are the lyrics of the chorus and translation:

Ponho o carro, tiro o carro, à hora que eu quiser

Que garagem apertadinha, que doçura de mulher

Tiro cedo e ponho à noite, e às vezes à tardinha

Estou até mudando o óleo na garagem da vizinha!


I put my car, I take out my car, anytime I want to

What a tight little garage, what a sweet woman

Take it early and put it at night, and sometimes in the evening

I'm even changing the oil in the neighbour's garage!


Barreiros released two albuns in 2004 and 2005. His latest CD, from 2005, was called "O Ténis" (in Portuguese, it means The Trainers, but the title is also similar to The Penis)

Best-selling Pimba male singers include Nel Monteiro, Toni Carreira, Roberto Leal, and Marco Paulo, arguably the top seller of portuguese charts.

Another well-known Pimba band are D'ZRT. Although considered pop by some, most adults equate it with Pimba, and hate them. Their most popular song is "Para Mim Tanto Me Faz" (For Me It's Indiferent), which was copied from the popular Japanese artist Tamaki Nami. Unlike other Pimba artists, D'ZRT target a pre-teen and teen audience.

D'ZRT came to life in a very famous Portuguese soap opera called "Morangos com Açúcar" ("Strawberries with Sugar"), a TV show credited with attracting the very elusive pre-teen and teen demographics to regular television broadcasts.

EnaPa2000 cannot be classified as Pimba. The nature of their lyrics is somewhat vernacular, but they have positioned themselves in a satyrical and intelectual context. This allows for some lattitude in their language and song lyrics, and still not be labelled as Pimba.

But there aren't only Pimba male singers. Some female singers have showed a lot of success in this kind of music. One of them is Ruth Marlene (alternative spelling [in correct portuguese] - Rute Marlene). Resuming, portugal is getting fed up of this kind of musicians, because, in the reality, they only talk about sex and other non-apropriated content that, only prejudicates the portuguese audience.

"Pimba" na Wikipedia: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimba"