Edivaldo Souza (10 January 1938 – 24 April 2025), better known by his artistic names Edy, Edy Souza (at the beginning of his career) and Edy Star, was a Brazilian singer, composer, actor, dancer, theatre producer, television presenter and artist. Having started working in entertainment as a child, he worked in various fields and in various genres, primarily with Brazilian burlesque (called chanchada), cabarets and revue theatre. Born and raised in the state of Bahia, in the Northeast of Brazil, he would move to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in the late 1960s, both of which by that point became the major entertainment centres of Brazil.
Star would go on, during the 70s, to become involved in avant-garde works, including the album Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista Apresenta Sessão das 10 with Raul Seixas, Sérgio Sampaio, and Miriam Batucada. He became known later on for his vulgar performances that challenged the limits of societal attitudes towards sexuality at the time. After having initially begun his performances in the then-rundown Praça Mauá in Rio de Janeiro, and, afterwards, continuing on to perform in locations often frequented by the upper class, such as the night clubs Number One and Up's. He later became known for his performances of The Rocky Horror Show, by Richard O'Brien. His success with his performances in Brazil led to the recording of his first album, Sweet Edy. He also worked in theatre and in television for the rest of that decade and into the 1980s. In the 1990s, Edy Star moved to Spain, where he continued to work at theatres and as a producer at night clubs. After living there for 20 years, he returned to Brazil and began singing again, relaunching his first album, as well as a new album, titled Cabaré Star, in 2017.
He was also known for his shows that mixed various styles of theatre and challenged the social conventions on sexuality at the time, being one of the first artists in Brazil to come out as gay.
Biography Star was born in Juazeiro on 10 January 1938, to a bookkeeper from an upper-middle class family from Salvador and a homemaker from a poor family in Juazeiro. His father had as a pastime amateur photography. He also worked as a football referee, and was refereeing a match in Juazeiro when he met Star's mother. His father's family did not approve of the relationship due to the socioeconomic status of his mother, but his father insisted on marrying her and moved to Juazeiro. Star, on turning a year old, moved with his family to Salvador.
With his siblings, he had a happy childhood in Salvador, living in a large house with a garden replete with banana, coconut, and mango trees. One of his childhood passions was reading. He read comics and magazines such as O Tico Tico, Captain Marvel, Classics Illustrated, Almanaque Vida Infantil, Revista da Semana, O Cruzeiro, and Revista do Globo. By 17, he also read many authors such as Alexandre Dumas, Érico Veríssimo, Monteiro Lobato, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and Jorge Amado.
Another passion of his in childhood was music. At home, he mainly listened to radio stations Nacional and Mayrink Veiga, along with local programs with Rádio Sociedade da Bahia — mainly A Hora da Criança. His father also used to take him to the studios which were led by teacher and journalist Adroaldo Ribeiro Costa. As he arrived home, he would improvise a microphone and stage in the garden and sing with his brothers. His first stage performance was when he was 13. His father observed the improvised sessions and signed him on to play at A Hora da Criança. During rehearsals done at Passeio Público de Salvador, he took theatre classes and participated in operetta montages based on works by Monteiro Lobato.
Along with his passions, Star always loved to design, which led him to become a plastic artist as well.
At 20 years old, he took courses at Petrobras and became a specialist in petroleum, working with the business as support and a production technician until 1961.
At the beginning of the 1960s, Star received the nickname Bofélia as a reference to the character Ofélia, played by actress Sônia Mamede on Balança Mas Não Cai, broadcast by Rádio Nacional at that time.
Career
Early beginnings Before working at Petrobras, Star had already participated in performances at a circus, against the wishes of his father who did not want his son to begin an artistic career. After being fired from Petrobras in 1961, he went on to start exhibitions of his paintings in Salvador, going by the name Edy Souza. He lived in the Boa Viagem neighborhood when he met Waldir Serrão and joined his rock and roll fan club, Elvis Club Rock, beginning to meet superficially a young Raul Seixas, at that point at just 15 years old. He began to rehearse rock with Serrão and keyboard player Thildo Gama, participating in various shows with the "turma do rock" in Salvador. At the same time, he met Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethânia, going and frequenting parties with the two siblings. In 1964, he came into contact with Gilberto Gil, already known as a singer for his performances on TV Itapoan. The two would come to compose a song together, "Procissão", which would be the first single released by Gil on his first album, Louvação, released in 1967. However, the co-authorship with Edy Star would only be recognized by Gil decades after. Not long after, Edy went on to perform with Caetano, Maria Bethânia, Gil and the youth that liked bossa nova in Bahia, which included Gal Costa and Tom Zé as well. Meanwhile, when they presented the special Nós, Por Exemplo..., which had its inaugural show at Teatro Vila Velha, which would reach a large audience for this group, Star did not take part, presenting a folklore show called Galeria Bazarte, mainly a handful of blocks while there. Though Augusto Boal had seen both shows, Star was not called when Boal took the rest of the group to São Paulo so that they could debut in the special Arena Canta Bahia, at Teatro de Arena. As a result, Star had maintained himself, since the beginning, as someone who would traverse the different cultural movements in Bahia, participating in both the "turma do rock" with Serrão and Seixas, as well as the "turma do Vila Velha", with Gil and Caetano.
Afterwards, he entered the Companhia Baiana de Comédias, presenting theatrical pieces in rural parts of various states in the northeast. This eventually took him to Pernambuco where, beginning in 1966, he established himself in the city of Olinda. Meanwhile, he also attempted a career as an artistic producer with TV Jornal do Commercio in Recife. His career took a turn when he starred in, together with Teca Calazans, the trendy musical Memórias de Dois Cantadores, which they performed in Recife in August 1967 and was accompanied by musicians Marcelo Melo and Geraldo Azevedo (guitars), Generino (flute), and Naná Vasconcelos (percussions). The play received numerous awards at the Festival de Teatro de Pernambuco in 1968, including for best musical, best figure, and best group. The musicals success opened the door for Edy Star to be invited, along with Naná Vasconcelos, to go to Rio de Janeiro to defend the song "Dia Cheio De Ogum", by composer Capiba, at the O Brasil Canta no Rio festival in December 1968. Though the song was not billed for the festival, it reached the final. There was later the release of an album with the 12 finalists through CID, a subsidiary of record label Itamaraty, Edy Stars record debut.
At the end of 1967, Edy Star returned to Bahia and became an artistic producer and presenter on TV Itapoan in Salvador. While there, producing and presenting the program Poder Jovem, he saw the arrival of new names such as Pepeu Gomes and Moraes Moreira, at a time before they formed the Novos Baianos, Rosa Passos, Maria Creuza, and Antônio Carlos e Jocáfi. Along with these, he appeared while singing on a program by Serrão on Rádio Cultura. It was on this program he met Seixas, who at that point lead the group Raulzito e os Panteras, a rock band that was widely known in Bahia for their performances while accompanying other artists, especially those connected to the Jovem Guarda en vogue in the state at that time. Star went on to have radio hits by singing from the repertoires of Jerry Adriani, Wanderley Cardoso, José Feliciano, and Trini Lopez, having as his most well known song a cover of the song La Bamba, where some sections of the audience did not like as much the more effeminate mannerisms that Star had. Meanwhile, after a difficult start, they soon became good friends. In 1968, Seixas went to Rio de Janeiro at the invite of Adriano to record an album for their group, but were not successful in creating any hits. However, after briefly to Bahia, he returned to Rio to become a producer at Discos CBS, again for works by Adriani. Star continued dividing his time between radio and TV and, during this time period, participating in various festivals with many different artists, including having personally met Ravi Shankar, Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger, and Marianne Faithfull.
With the Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista In 1970, Star sought to pay late salaries while presenting a program live at TV Itapoan, summarily resulting in his dismissal. While going to a bar to take his mind off the situation, he found Seixas who invited him to go to Rio to work as an employee at Discos CBS, where Seixas had been a producer. This arrangement made it so that Star had enough to get by with periodic payments under the headings of "research rights" and "related rights". Seixas soon got his friend to record a compact CD produced by him, "Aqui É Quente, Bicho", by Seixas himself, and a cover of Harry Belafonte's "Matilda" sung by mutual friend Leno. Leno and Seixas were inseparable by 1970, as Seixas produced Vida e Obra de Johnny McCartney for him. The project ended up not being released, however, due to censorship issues. The project would be released in 1995 as a double compact disc that would have been released in 1971. Meanwhile, in January 1971, Seixas met Sérgio Sampaio when he was accompanying composer Odibar for an audition with the label. Despite Odibar having left, Seixas brought Sampaio on when he played a composition of his titled "Chorinho Inconsequente". As a result, they became inseparable friends beginning in 1971.
Seixas had decided to create a conceptual album, in the image of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles; Freak Out! by The Mothers of Invention; and Tropicalia ou Panis et Circencis by Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Nara Leão, Os Mutantes, and Tom Zé. As such, he would see in Sampaio an ideal partner to go through with a Brazilian conceptual album, that would mix together influences from music both in Brazil and abroad. As they had decided to unite a diverse group to undertake the effort, they soon called on Star. Difficulties began to emerge when they wanted a female voice to add. They initially thought about Diana, the then girlfriend of Odair José, and Lílian, at that point in a duo with Leno, but they were both taken out of consideration due to their relationships. Another singer that was considered was Lena Rios, a singer from the state of Piauí who began her career by singing a song composed by Seixas at the 1972 International Festival of Song. After also being taken out of consideration, Star remembered a well-humored singer he had seen when he performed at a nightclub in Rio, Boate Drink, by Djalma Ferreira. When they called Miriam Batucada, she soon gained among them the nickname Dr. Silvana, due to the large pair of glasses she had used and reminded them of the DC Comics character.