Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're looking
at a story that, ah, honestly, it seems impossible.
It's a weird one. It's a really weird one. You
have a 1970s Latin pop superstar on one hand
and Pope John Paul II on the other. Right. Not
exactly a natural pairing. No. But that's exactly
what we're getting into today. We're doing a
deep dive into the song Amigo by the, I mean,
the legendary Brazilian singer Roberto Carlos.
Amigo. friend such a simple title deceptively
simple because our mission today is to figure
out how this one ballad which was basically about
friendship between two guys somehow became this
like accidental anthem for a people visit and
not just that it topped the charts twice a year
apart a year apart and then decades later it
comes back as a salsa hit it's just it's a wild
ride it really is a perfect example of how a
song with a you know A really pure, universal
message can just cross every border imaginable.
Languages, genres, you name it. It's kind of
about cultural serendipity. I love that phrase.
Okay, so let's start at the beginning. 1977.
The song itself. We have to clear up a big misconception
right off the bat, don't we? About the songwriters.
We do. The credit reads, Erasmo Carlos and Roberto
Carlos. And you immediately think, okay, brothers.
It's the logical leap, but no. No relation at
all. Nope. Just a coincidence. They shared a
surname. They were just these incredibly close,
longtime songwriting partners. And they had their
roles down, right? Oh, yeah. A very clear division.
Erasmo typically handled the music. And Roberto,
he wrote the lyrics. Okay, so maybe not Brothers
by Blood, but this song is definitely about that
kind of bond. It is, 100%. Roberto Carlos actually
wrote the lyrics of Amigo as a dedication to
Erasmo. So it's a tribute. A direct tribute.
And the lyrics, I mean, they're not just surface
level, you're my buddy stuff. They talk about
a friendship that's been through hard times.
you know, survived. I was looking at some of
the translated lines. There's that one piece
of imagery that really stands out. He calls his
friend a man with the heart of a child. Yes.
Hold on to that line. A man with the heart of
a child. It's going to become very, very important
a little later in the story. And he also says
his friend's heart is a house with open doors.
It's just so open and vulnerable. Exactly. And
that vulnerability. is what led it travel see
it came out in portuguese in 77 but roberto carlos
he was already a massive star and he had this
strategy the spanish version the spanish version
it was his standard practice he'd re -record
his biggest hits in spanish to really conquer
the rest of the latin american market He didn't
do the translations himself, though? No, for
Amigo, he brought in an Argentine brother and
sister team, Buddy and Mary McCluskey. The McCluskeys.
The McCluskeys. And they did a really faithful
adaptation. The meaning, the sentiment, it's
all there. And that single had a B -side, uh,
No pego vides de mi. Which means, don't forget
about me. A little ironic, considering no one
could forget the A -side. Not a chance. It was
a smash hit. In Mexico, it hit number one on
the week of March 10th, 1978. Okay, so. March
78. It's a number one hit. Story over, Ray. Just
another successful pop song. If that's where
it ended, it would be a nice footnote in his
career. But this is where the story gets really
good. We need to jump forward to January 1979.
And this is a huge moment in Mexican history.
Pope John Paul II is coming to visit. We have
to stress this wasn't just any visit. No, this
was the first time a pope had ever visited Mexico.
The cultural significance, the excitement, you
just can't overstate it. So the Pope's coming.
And on January 30th, he's scheduled to visit
a private Catholic school, the Instituto Miguel
Ango. Right. And the plan is for him to be greeted
with a performance by some of the students. Yeah.
The Children's Rondalla of the Collegio Mexico
and the Studentina of the Institute. So like
very traditional student music groups. Exactly.
Lots of acoustic guitars, mandolins, that kind
of thing. Very formal. And they had a set list
figured out. Almost. They had two songs locked
in. Tu eres Pedro, you are Peter, which is very
on brand for the Pope. Makes sense. And the other
was Hymno a la Alegria, the hymn to joy, Beethoven.
Classics. But they were stuck on the third song.
Totally stuck. The organizers just could not
agree. And time is running out. They're making
these poor kids rehearse all these different
options and nothing is working. You can just
picture the scene, can't you? A room full of
stressed out school administrators and just like.
100 exhausted children. It's pure chaos. But
it's also where the magic happens. This is my
favorite part of the story. So they're at a total
impasse. And from the back of the room, this
little voice pipes up. One of the kid singers.
Just a tired kid. And he shouts, why don't we
sing Amigo? The Pope says that us children are
his friends. That's the quote. The simple, perfect
logic of a child. It just cuts through everything.
All the bureaucracy, all the debate. This kid
is just like, he's our friend. Let's sing the
friend song. And the organizers, they just heard
it and went, yes. They accepted the idea immediately.
And just like that, this pop song about two songwriters
is on the official program for a papal visit.
That moment changed everything for this song.
So January 30th arrives, the Pope is there. And
the children perform their three songs, Dores
Pedro, Himno a la Alegría, and then Amigo. And
the reaction. It was immediate. The whole visit
was being televised, broadcast everywhere. So
when the story got out that this popular song
was part of the welcome, public interest just
exploded. Radio stations must have jumped all
over that. They put it back into heavy rotation
immediately. But the record label, Musart Records,
they were really clever. What did they do? They
didn't just push the Roberto Carlos version.
They rushed the actual kids from the school into
a studio. No way. The Rondala and the Estudiantina.
The very same. They had them record their own
version. It was a little slower. And they added
an accordion to give it this really traditional
folksy sound. And how did they market it? They
were not subtle. The album cover was a big photo
of the Pope, and the tagline was literally, The
Children Who Sang for His Holiness John Paul
II. Wow. Okay, so that's pretty direct. And it
worked. It created this chart anomaly you almost
never see. Right, because the song hit number
one in March of 78. Correct. But then, on March
30, 1979, More than a year later, the original
Roberto Carlos version went back to number one
in Mexico. It had a second run at number one.
For two weeks. And the children's version was
a huge seller, too. It's so rare for a song to
have two separate peaks like that, driven by
a news event. The song basically became a hymn
in the public mind. It did. And Roberto Carlos
himself, he sort of acknowledged that. What did
he say about it? He was quoted as saying he really
appreciated it. He just said, I am religious,
I'm Catholic, I like messages. I like messages.
Very understated. I think he knew the song wasn't
just his anymore. It belonged to this moment.
And when a song becomes a moment like that, it
starts showing up elsewhere. Which brings us
to 1980. The movie. There's a movie called Amigo.
Yep. And it's a really interesting piece of media
because it kind of blurs the line between a fictional
story and a documentary. It starred a huge child
actor at the time, Pedro Fernandez. Right. He
was a massive singer and actor. And the plot
of the movie is basically a retelling of this
exact event. A reenactment of the kids singing
for the Pope. Sort of. The climax of the film
is Pedro Fernandez's character in the choir.
Singing Amigo for the Pope. But the kicker is
they mix in actual documentary footage from the
Pope's real visit to the Basilica of Our Lady
of Guadalupe. So you're watching the movie, but
you're also seeing the real Pope. It completely
cemented the song's connection to that historical
moment. If you saw that film, Amigo and Pope
John Paul II were linked forever in your mind.
It's amazing how it became this perfect little
time capsule. But the story doesn't stop in the
80s. Not even close. We have to fast forward
again all the way to 2004. And this is where
Marc Anthony comes in. Exactly. Marc Anthony,
now a global superstar, decides to cover Amigo.
And he does it twice. What do you mean twice?
Well, he released two albums at roughly the same
time. One was a pop album, Amaris and Mentiras.
And the other was a salsa album, Valio La Pena.
And Amigo is on both of them. It is. You get
the ballad version, which is pretty faithful
to the original. But the salsa version. That's
where it got a whole new life. One critic called
it tasty, right? That's the word. From the province.
They praised its multiple horn lines. And you
have to admit, turning this slow, heartfelt ballad
into a salsa track is a bold move. Yeah, salsa
is all about high energy dancing. Amigo is. Quiet
reflection. But it works. The melody is so strong
that when you put that driving rhythm and those
bright horns behind it, it transforms the feeling
from quiet appreciation into like a joyous celebration
of friendship. Did it do well in the charts?
It did. The salsa version hit number four on
the Billboard Tropical Airplay chart. So almost
30 years after it was written, it's a hit again
in a totally new genre. It just shows you how
durable that song is. And Marc Anthony didn't
just keep it in the studio. No, he performed
it live with other huge stars like Cheyenne and
Alejandro Fernandez. That's a Latin music royal
flush right there. It is. It proves the song
had become, you know, a standard that's part
of the canon now. When you lay it all out like
that, a song between friends in Brazil. translated
by siblings in Argentina, shouted out by a tired
kid in Mexico, performed for the Pope, turned
into a movie, and then reborn as a salsa hit.
It all comes back to that one line for me, a
heart of a child. How so? Well, think about it.
The song's core message is about having the heart
of a child. And who's the hero of the story?
Who changes the song's destiny? A child. A child.
Who starred in the movie that cemented its legacy,
Pedro Fernandez, A Child. It's like the song's
own lyrics predicted its path. Wow, I never put
that together. That's a beautiful way to look
at it. It's just a reminder that in a world of
complex geopolitics, which a papal visit definitely
is, sometimes the simplest message is the one
that breaks through. Friendship. It's a message
that works for your best friend, and it works
for a religious figure, and it works on a dance
floor. It's fundamental. So really, the history
of a song isn't just about sales figures. No,
the charts are just numbers. The real story is
what happens around the song. If that kid in
the rehearsal hadn't spoken up, Amigo would still
be a great song. But it would be this song. History
is so often made in those small, unrecorded moments.
It really makes you wonder how many other songs
are out there just waiting for their moment.
waiting for the right tired kid to shout them
out the potential is always there so to wrap
this all up we've gone from a songwriting session
to a papal serenade to a salsa club all carried
by that one pure message that heart of a child
idea and it leaves me with this one last thought
for you to chew on we talk about being in the
right place at the right time But I can't get
past the image of that one kid in that rehearsal
hall. The catalyst. The catalyst. If he'd been
a little less bold or the organizers a little
more dismissive, would we even be talking about
this? Would Amigo just be another track on a
Greatest Hits album? It makes you think about
how fragile these cultural moments really are.
Exactly. So maybe the next time you're in a room
and you have an idea that seems a little out
of left field, maybe you should just shout it
out. You never know. You might just make history.
Or get a song to number one for a second time.
That too. Thanks for taking this dive with us.
My pleasure. We'll see you next time.