Águas de Março: Brazil's Greatest Song

In 2001 a poll of more than two hundred Brazilian musicians and critics named "Águas de Março" the greatest Brazilian song ever written.^[1] It is, fittingly, a song about everything and nothing — the endless cycle of life itself.^[1]

A song born of rain

Antônio Carlos Jobim wrote "Águas de Março" in 1972, composing both the Portuguese and English lyrics.^[1] Its inspiration was the rainy season in Rio de Janeiro, when March brings sudden storms and flooding; stuck inside on a stormy day, Jobim began to write.^[1] Rather than telling a story, the lyric piles up a collage of small images — "a stick, a stone, the end of the road" — with most lines beginning "É..." ("It is..."), evoking the flow of water and of existence.^[1]

The definitive recording

Elis Regina first recorded the song in 1972, but its most beloved version is the 1974 duet she sang with Jobim, the opening track of the masterpiece album Elis & Tom — a performance of such warmth and playfulness that it is often called definitive.^[1]

Why it matters

"Águas de Março" is widely considered the summit of Brazilian songwriting — ranked first in the Folha de S.Paulo poll and second (after Chico Buarque's "Construção") by Rolling Stone Brazil.^[1] Like Garota de Ipanema, it represents Jobim's genius at its purest and remains one of Brazil's most cherished and most covered songs.^[2]