Ivete Sangalo is one of Brazil's most commercially successful artists, and this new compilation by Universal Music tries to bank on the appeal of Sangalo's last two projects. The 2007 CD/DVD Multishow ao Vivo became Brazil's biggest-selling DVD in history, while 2009's Pode Entrar was a lovely duets album recorded at Sangalo's home. Duetos is a CD/DVD (but again, it is the DVD that counts) featuring 19 Sangalo performances culled from a variety of live appearances, or from the recording sessions of Pode Entrar. Like most ...
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Ivete Sangalo is one of Brazil's most commercially successful artists, and this new compilation by Universal Music tries to bank on the appeal of Sangalo's last two projects. The 2007 CD/DVD Multishow ao Vivo became Brazil's biggest-selling DVD in history, while 2009's Pode Entrar was a lovely duets album recorded at Sangalo's home. Duetos is a CD/DVD (but again, it is the DVD that counts) featuring 19 Sangalo performances culled from a variety of live appearances, or from the recording sessions of Pode Entrar. Like most Brazilian popular artists, Sangalo is a universally well-loved figure, attested to by the differences in age and reputation of his 19 partners here, a list that includes legends of MPB such as Maria Bethânia, Gilberto Gil, and Jorge Ben Jor, king of sugary pop Roberto Carlos, strictly party outfits such as Aviões do Forró or Netinho, the wonderful bossa-jazz vocalist Rosa Passos, or the multitalented and seemingly ubiquitous Carlinhos Brown, among many others of lesser artistic credentials. There can be no doubt that Duetos is unabashedly intended for the millions of Sangalo fans who will love to have all of these collaborations in one place, in the hopes that it will duplicate the DVD sales of Multishow ao Vivo. For any others, this may be overkill, not only because of the excessive number of tracks, but because Duetos inadvertently highlights Sangalo's AOR side -- certainly not her most exciting. By the very nature of this album, too many songs end up being boy-girl syrupy ballads (one of the best examples is the Portuguese version of A-ha's "Hunting High and Low" with Alexandre Pires), as opposed to burn-down-the-house dance numbers, the area where Sangalo made her name. Of course, there are some great moments in Duetos (often directly related to the name of Sangalo's partner) but casual listeners are probably best served by a proper greatest-hits compilation, or by any of Sangalo's records, all as equally entertaining as virtually interchangeable. ~ Mariano Prunes, Rovi
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