The (FIC; also known as the ) was an annual televised music competition held at the Ginásio do Maracanãzinho in Rio de Janeiro from 1966 to 1972. The festival was created by journalist with the goal of rivaling the hosted by TV Record. The competition consisted of two sections: a national phase (consisting of only Brazilian songwriters) and an international phase (consisting of all attending countries including the winners of the national phase). The winners of each phase were given the Golden Rooster Award (), produced by jewelry firm H. Stern and designed by Ziraldo.
Despite only having a seven-year run, the festival featured some of the most influential musicians in Brazilian music such as Os Mutantes, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, and Gilberto Gil. It also helped launch the careers of several notable artists, including Raul Seixas and Milton Nascimento.
The festival functioned as a propaganda tool for the Brazilian military dictatorship to promote the country abroad while conversely featuring protest songs that highlighted the political discontent within the country. Several editions featured demonstrations against the dictatorship and government censorship. Some featured expressions of black pride. As a result, many iterations of the festival were marked by controversy.
Formation
was a journalist and businessman who befriended several important politicians, executives, and musicians across Brazil. He was a friend of Jânio Quadros, serving as his secretary while he was governor of São Paulo. After Quadros was elected president of Brazil in 1961, Marzagão was given the role of director of public relations for the . Through this function, he witnessed the Sanremo Music Festival while advertising abroad in Italy.
Inspired by the format of the festival in Sanremo, Marzagão enlisted the help of , the governor of the State of Guanabara, to create a music festival for Rio de Janeiro. Lima was enthusiastic to help, as it would rival the hosted in São Paulo and bring tourism to Rio, which was lacking attractions. At the same time, it would also help improve international relations, which had become strained due to the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état. With the backing of the Tourism Minister of Guanabara, João Paulo do Rio Branco, Marzagão began looking for a broadcaster and venue.
Marzagão initially asked TV Globo, the largest network in South America, to be the broadcaster, but its executive, , was hesitant to commit resources to such an expensive and new festival. Marzagão instead looked toward TV Rio. With support from its executives and music director , it became the official broadcaster for the inaugural event. For the venue, both the Teatro Carlos Gomes and Theatro Municipal were considered. The management teams for each opera hall were worried that a popular music festival would draw too large and ill-mannered a crowd compared to the normal attendees. After some more searching, the Maracanãzinho was suggested by (a member of the planning committee) due to its large capacity. However, the gymnasium was designed for basketball games and had never held any sort of musical event. Chaves and Marzagão ran some acoustics tests in the space and were disappointed. Nonetheless, with no other alternative, the gymnasium was chosen to host the event. To advertise the event, and to ensure the stadium would be filled with attendees to improve acoustics, several hundreds of tickets for the national phase were given away for free.
Editions
1966 The first festival saw nearly two thousand original songs submitted for the national phase of the competition, exceeding the expectations of the organizers. To choose the songs that would be performed and judged at the festival, a preliminary committee made up of noted scholars and musicians—including César Guerra-Peixe, Marques Rebelo, and —was assembled. Among the thirty-six songs chosen were compositions by Vinícius de Moraes, , and Billy Blanco.
The presenters for the first festival were , a soap opera star, and , the former Miss Brazil. The jury for the national phase was a twenty-three member panel made up of noted Carioca journalists, music critics, musicians, and scholars, chaired by musicologist . The competition was formatted in three rounds over three nights; eighteen songs were heard in each of the first two rounds, and the top fourteen songs chosen from either night moved on to the final round. After several hectic performances, filled with technical issues from a hastily constructed set, the top three songs for the national phase were announced: "Dia das Rosas", written and performed by Maysa Matarazzo, placed third; "O Cavaleiro", written by Geraldo Vandré and performed by Tuca, placed second; "Saveiros", written by Dori Caymmi and Nelson Motta, with a performance by Nana Caymmi, placed first. Named after the , "Saveiros" was inspired by the fishermen of Bahia and chosen by the panel for its unique complexity. As the winning song, it represented Brazil in the international phase.
The international phase contained representatives from twenty-seven countries, including Brazil. Mighty Sparrow, who was supposed to represent Trinidad and Tobago, was disqualified for not arriving in time. Noted performers included Eduard Khil, representing the Soviet Union, Dúo Dinámico representing Spain, and Gogi Grant representing the United States. The format paralleled the national phase, with qualifiers held over two nights and a final on the third. This format was used going forward. The jury was also altered, now containing international stars such as Henry Mancini, Horst Jankowski, and chairman of the jury, Chico Buarque. With the song "Frag den Wind", written by Helmut Zacharias, lyricized by Carl J. Schauber, and performed by Inge Brück, Germany was declared the winner. This victory allowed Brück to represent Germany at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. The winner of the national phase and representative of Brazil, "Saveiros", placed second. The song "L'Amour Toujours L'Amour", sung by Guy Mardel, the representative of France, placed third.
1967
The second festival was the first to be broadcast by TV Globo as Walter Clark was now eager to get involved after the success of the first. This allowed Hilton Gomes (the anchor of its flagship news program Jornal da Globo) to henceforth serve as the presenter. Thanks to a larger budget and with the hope of attracting more sponsors, the competition was lengthened and several renovations were done to the gymnasium. This included a new stage, sound system, and improvements to the dressing rooms. Originally, forty songs were selected to compete in the national phase. However, the secretary of tourism for Guanabara, Carlos de Laet, made an executive decision to alter the list of songs that had been chosen by the committee. This caused several artists to pull out of the festival, including songwriters and Tito Madi, who would have benefited from the alterations. After several back-and-forth meetings, a final list of forty-six songs was made that included those which Laet had removed. Milton Nascimento was the most represented on the list with three songs.
Nascimento was a minor artist at the time, but had impressed Agostinho dos Santos while playing at a bar. Dos Santos advocated for Nascimento to enter the festival, but Nascimento refused, discouraged after receiving a poor audience reaction at the Festival Nacional de Música Popular Brasileira a year prior. Dos Santos instead asked Nascimento to record three songs for a fictitious upcoming album. After the songs were recorded, Agostinho secretly sent the tapes to the festival committee. Only learning of the entry after being accepted, Nascimento felt no other choice but to perform.
The juries were chaired by conductor Isaac Karabtchevsky for the national phase and Henry Mancini for the international phase. The first round of competition opened with a work by choro composer Pixinguinha that was sung by Ademilde Fonseca. This was followed by two of the entries from Nascimento, which included "Travessia" (better known in English as "Bridges"). The songs, with orchestral arrangements by Eumir Deodato, were praised by both the audience and the jury, establishing him as one of the strongest competitors. For the second round, Nascimento performed "Morro Velho", his third and final song, reportedly drawing an even larger crowd than the first night. All of his songs made the final round and were later recorded on his .
In third place for the national phase was "Carolina", written by Chico Buarque and performed by sisters Cynara and Cybele of Quarteto em Cy. Buarque had only entered the competition under the condition that a fine he incurred from Walter Clark for breaching a contract earlier that year be waived and was surprised to have placed so high. Meanwhile, Nascimento earned second place with "Travessia" and received the special designation of best performer. Record producer Creed Taylor, who was in attendance, was so impressed by Nascimento that he immediately signed him to his label for a three-album deal, beginning with Courage. The national phase was won by the song "Margarida", written and performed by alongside his band, Grupo Manifesto. The song (based on "Seche tes Larmes, Marie", a French folk tune) was another crowd favorite and was chosen by the jury for its unique structure that allowed the audience to sing along even during its debut performance.
The international phase grew to contain thirty-two countries that competed under the same format as the year prior. In third place was Brazil, represented by "Margarida", the national winner. In second place was the United States, represented by "And the World Goes On", written by Quincy Jones and Alan and Marilyn Bergman with a performance by Patti Austin. The festival was won by Italy with "Per una Donna", a ballad written by Marcello di Martino, Giulio Perreta, and Corrado Mantoni. Performed by Jimmy Fontana, it was loudly booed when announced as the winner, as the crowd had greatly favored "Margarida".
1968 After complaints of a Rio bias, it was decided that the national phase would be altered so that the largest states were guaranteed songs in the festival. São Paulo was guaranteed six songs, Minas Gerais was guaranteed two, and Bahia, Pernambuco, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul were each guaranteed one. Instead of a simple committee, the Teatro da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo would host a preliminary concert to choose the six songs that would represent São Paulo. In addition to better representing Paulista musicians, the concert would also help Globo pull viewers away from the rival hosted in the city by TV Record.