New single with Pelé ‘Acredita no Véio’ (Listen to the Old Man)

A fantastic, unique collaboration track between The Greatest Soccer Player Of All-Time and 2019 Grammy winners Rodrigo y Gabriela

‘I’ve written many books, I’ve scored many goals, I’ve fathered children, I’ve planted many trees. The only thing that’s lacking is a musical memento of my life.’ – Pelé.

Pelé has always been crazy about music and songwriting – but he never really spoke about it, he says, because ‘I didn’t want the public to make the comparison between Pelé the composer and Pelé the footballer. That would have been a huge injustice – in football my talent was a gift from God, music was just for fun.’

Rodrigo y Gabriela add: ‘We are both big soccer fans. Growing up in Mexico City, we heard many stories about Pele and the legendary Brazilian team that triumphed at the 1970 World Cup in our homeland. Imagine our surprise and delight to find out that not only is Pele the greatest footballer of all-time, but is also a very talented singer and songwriter? It is a huge honour for us to collaborate with Pele on the occasion of his 80th Birthday.’

This special collaboration track began when Rodrigo y Gabriela – fresh from their Grammy win for their latest album ‘Mettavolution – were invited by fellow Mexican music producer Jorge Berlanga to contribute a song for a tribute to legendary Hispanic composer Armando Manzanero. On discovering that Rod & Gab are soccer-mad, Jorge mentioned that he was a good friend of Pelé, and would they be interested in working on a song together? Quicker than you can say Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the music was flowing between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Ixtapa, Mexico. Acredita No Véio was originally written by Pelé in 2005 when working with his regular musical partner, the Brasilian jazz musician and arranger Ruria Duprat, best known for his work with visiting jazz stars Diana Krall, Randy Brecker and Ron Carter.

Of the song itself, the Great Man says: “I wrote this one because when I used to play with Santos, the coach used to say that when we lost it was the players’ fault, but when we won it was the macumba (black magic) had helped. The song is joking about that – of course, macumba doesn’t win games at all.”