The many voices of Itamar Assumpção: Deconstructing identities and subverting marginality in Brazilian popular music

Brazilian singer–songwriter Itamar Assumpção (São Paulo, 1949–2003) is best remembered for his complex composition style and theatrical live performances. In the early 1980s, he started working with elements of what would later become his trademark songwriting style: role playing, irreverence, acid social criticism and the overlapping of different rhythmic patterns. On Assumpção’s first album, the independent release Beleléu leléu eu (1981), the songs form a narrative body portraying the life of Beleléu, a dangerous criminal (created and performed by Assumpção himself), and his gang (also his band) called Isca de Polícia (police bait). The songs are based on an ambiguous play between biography and fiction: a complex identity (de/re)construction in which Assumpção was able to transport the possibilities of stage performance into the album, revealing to the listener his various personas through various uses of his own voice. The songs combine the lyrics, rhythm, guitar/bass lines, the use of spoken word and backing vocal interventions to create a highly innovative songwriting style. The analysis of this album was complemented by a 1983 videotaped concert with a similar repertoire.