Marco Paulo (singer)

Marco Paulo, stage name of João Simão da Silva, is a Portuguese singer and television presenter who was born on 21 January 1945 in Mourão, in the Alentejo region of Portugal. He is one of Portugal's most successful singers ever and a popular television presenter.^[1][2][3][4] Several of his most successful hits in Portugal are properly credited covers of foreign songs which were virtually unknown to the Portuguese public in their original version.

In 1978, he received the first of many gold discs in his career with the single "Ninguém, Ninguém"/"Canção Proibida".

In 1980, He released one of his biggest hits, "Eu Tenho Dois Amores", which, with sales of over 150,000 discs, achieved triple gold, a rare feat in Portuguese music at the time. Other hits in the first half of the 1980s included "Mais e mais Amor"/"Quem Vier Por Bem" (1981), "Anita" (1982), "Flor Sem Nome"/"Cá Se Faz, Cá Se Paga" (1983) and "Morena, Morenita" (1984).

In December 1984, Paulo released the album Romance, which included the hits "Deixa Viver", "Nasci Para Cantar", "Se Deus Quiser" and "Só Falei Para Dizer Que Te Amo", a version of Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You", which got him his first platinum disc. The 1980s also brought success with songs such as "Dono Do Meu Coração", "Joana", "Sonho Tropical", "Sempre Que Brilha o Sol", "Anjo Azul" and "Quando o Pai Cantava". The 1990s opened with the release of De Todo o Coração (1990), from which the singles "Ai Ai Ai Meu Amor" and "Um Amor Em Cada Porto" were taken. But it would be the following year, with the song "Taras e Manias", a cover of Brazilian singer Elymar Santos's "Taras e Manias", that Marco Paulo would once again achieve success, reinforced in the meantime by the compilation Maravilhoso Coração.

In 1993 Paulo debuted as a television presenter, with the program Eu Tenho Dois Amores, a ratings success for two years. That same year he released Amor Total, an album that included songs such as "Enganas-me e Eu Gosto", "Amante, Irmão, Amigo", "Perco a Cabeça", "Meu Querido Rio" and "Coração Deserto". In 1996, he underwent two operations due to cancer, but returned the following year with Reencontro, an album produced by Emanuel, a singer and songwriter considered one of the greatest icons of so-called Pimba music. His health issues remained anyway a permanent serious problem on his life and career since they firstly arose.^[5] In the 2020s, he increasingly started to host TV programs.^[1][2][3][4]

• Tony Carreira