Song of protest in Brazil and Portugal: A semiotic analysis of the song as an instrument of resistance to the Military Dictatorship and the portuguese Estado Novo in the 1960s and 1970s.

• Grant number: 25/04406-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Francisco Carlos Palomanes Martinho
• Grantee: João Vitor Zucolo Ferreira dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

It was in the 1960s that the so-called protest song, or intervention song emerged as a mass phenomenon around the world. Protagonized mainly by university students, this type of music was marked by lyrics whose themes were characterized by contesting the political authoritarianism in their countries. The aim of our research is, through the use of semiotic techniques and a comparative historical study, to analyze the lyrics of protest songs developed in Brazil and Portugal, essentially during the 1960s and 1970s. Through this, we sought to understand how these songs, both Brazilian and Portuguese, were impacted by the song's diction, discursive formation and the rhythmic and textual combination in the creation of strategies to escape censorship. Finally, through this analysis, we want to point out divergences and similarities between them, studying the possibility of a pattern of resistance.