Solano Ribeiro

Solano Ribeiro de Faria was born in São Paulo in 1939. In 1957 he enrolled in the drama course at the Escola de Arte Dramática, but he interrupted his studies to become the singer of a rock band, The Avallons, which enjoyed some success in São Paulo and recorded several discs. In the early 1960s he worked as a stage actor and took part in the Teatro de Arena, one of the most influential theatre companies of the period.

In 1963 Ribeiro was invited to coordinate programming at TV Excelsior. Two years later he conceived and produced the first Festival Nacional da Música Popular Brasileira, broadcast by Excelsior in 1965. The contest made Elis Regina a national star when she won with Arrastão, written by Edu Lobo and Vinicius de Moraes.

At TV Record he led the 1966 festival, which ended with two winning songs, Chico Buarque's A Banda and Disparada by Geraldo Vandré and Théo de Barros, and took part in organising the 1967 edition, marked by a heated debate over the use of electric guitars in Brazilian music and won by Ponteio, by Edu Lobo and Capinan. The festivals he produced at Excelsior, Record, Globo and Tupi helped launch or project artists including Francis Hime, Nara Leão, Jair Rodrigues, Martinho da Vila, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Os Mutantes. At TV Globo he was artistic director of the Festival Internacional da Canção in the early 1970s, he was linked to the Festival Tupi in 1976, and in 1985 he was one of those responsible for the Festival dos Festivais.

As a director of television musicals he made Disparada with Geraldo Vandré and Som Livre Exportação for Rede Globo, and A César, a coproduction with TV Manchete that won the Golden Toucan for best musical at the Fest Rio. He directed documentaries for German television and was awarded at a European television festival in Austria for the musical Novos Baianos FC. Back in Brazil he became programming director of Rede Tupi, then left to help found the radio network Antena 1. As a director of commercials he won numerous prizes, including a Grand Prix for the launch campaign of the Fiat Tempra.

In 2000 he took part in the Festival da Música Brasileira on TV Globo, and in 2005 he was general director of the Festival Cultura, for which he created a video clip festival and an internet festival. In 2003 he published Prepare seu Coração: a História dos Grandes Festivais. From 2006 he presented the weekly programme Solano Ribeiro e a Nova Música do Brasil on Rádio Cultura Brasil, which was honoured twice, in 2006 and 2012, by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA).

Ribeiro was married to Ana Maria for 53 years. They had two children, Chico and Solana. The conductor Júlio Medaglia, who sat on the jury of every festival Ribeiro organised, described a partnership that lasted until the end of Ribeiro's life.

Solano Ribeiro died in the early hours of Saturday 31 October 2026 in São Paulo, aged 87. He had faced cancer three times and, because of his advanced age, was being cared for in a clinic in São Paulo where he received palliative care. His death was confirmed by his wife, and his daughter Solana paid tribute to him on social media. Rádio Cultura Brasil mourned him as a dedicated professional and a Brazilian who believed in artists. His wake was held the same afternoon at the Bosque da Paz cemetery and crematorium in Vargem Grande Paulista, in Greater São Paulo, attended by family and close friends.

Ribeiro is regarded as one of the people most responsible for making television the main showcase of Brazilian popular music during what became known as the Era of the Festivals. The critic Mauro Ferreira told TV Globo's Jornal Nacional that Ribeiro did not discover the great names of the period but created the platform that gave them visibility, presenting the right artists to the right audience at the right moment. His book Prepare seu Coração remains a standard account of the festivals, and his radio programme kept him championing new Brazilian music into his eighties.