Singer, pianist, entertainer. These three capture the essence of the artist I am and what I can provide.

I love to sing, I love to play the piano but what I love even more is to share my music with people. Make people sing, dance and feel the music. Bringing something to make the moment unforgettable. 

I was born in the south of Brazil, not in Rio or São Paulo but Rio Grande do Sul (translated as THE Big River of the South). Just a few thousand miles east of Argentina, in “my Brazil” temperatures can get below 0 °C (32 °F) in Winter (only for a few weeks). I was born in a city called Bento Gonçalves but raised in Farroupilha.

There are two and I cannot make up my mind between them. The first one is a little obvious given my rock singer/pianist inspiration, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. The second one is far less popular but to me is a master piece and as a teenager I used to listen to it eyes closed when lying in bed and it made me travel, Fool’s Overture by Supertramp.

It all started in Brazil when I was 7 years old, with classical piano lessons. I loved the intellectual challenge of playing classical music. It was fun to see how each hand could do a different thing and how the melodies, harmonies and rythm could create beautiful intricated things.  The singing started when I was 10 and my family brought home a karaoke.  In my family everybody sings and we spent a lot of quality time together singing and having fun. A few years later, as a teenager, I joined a professional Music Conservatory at the University (UFRGS) to get some (very serious) piano lessons. The level of the teachers and the students was much higher and I learned a lot in a short period. Unfortunately little by little due to the lack of artistic liberty  I lost interest in playing classical music and I dropped out of the conservatory.

A page has turned and I decided to learn the guitar and perfect my singing. It was somehow a natural step since a couple of friends were taking guitar lessons and they needed a singer. I was fifteen years old.

My first band started at this time, it was called “LPs” and it played mostly classical rock songs (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabath, Dire Straits, The Doors,…). I was on keyboards and backing vocals. This was probably the time my interest in vocal technique starts. I took some singing lessons but, sincerely, I mostly learned by the good old trial and error method. I loved to experiment with my voice, test its limits and capacities. Well, back to the band. The other members were a little older and had more band experience than me. It was challenging to do something so distant from classical music. I enjoyed the experience and  in the following years I joined in another band called “Retrato Falado”.  It exposed me to the pleasure of planning a performance that had prompts, theatrical appearances and music to make people sing and dance.

It was 2009 and my first time living abroad. Even if my moving to France was not related to music (double degree in engineering at Ecole Centrale Paris) this was the period I practiced the most extesively till then. How? In between courses I sneaked to the Music Room of the campus to play the piano and sing. The core of my solo setlist was consolidated at this time. Legendary songs like Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen), Roxanne (The Police) and Logical Song (Supertramp) were already on the list. Back then I didn’t have much time to play gigs so my musical career didn’t evolve much. In 2012 I returned to Brazil to finish my Engineering studies.

Back In Brazil I got along with another musician/engineer and songwriter, Pablo Dias. I joined his band (the “Goiabanda”) and we played in several venues, bars and events. The result of my solo rehearsals in France could be clearly heard. I was a much better singer and musician than before. Music was getting serious. A few years later I came back to France, where I am still living  (in 2021). Again my official motive was not music but this time I was ready to try music professionally. Since then I’ve been playing and singing with several bands and had the chance to play with talented musicians at important Parisian nighlife venues. I feel like I gained a lot of professional live music experience in music and entertainement and I love to put it into practice in every gig I play.

No. OK, Luciano is my real name but Cadô is a “stage family name” composed by the first and the last syllabes of my real family name.

Here is how I got to it. I always loved the stage name of Mr. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, STING, because I think it agrees perfectly with the character of his voice. When looking for a stage name I asked my family and friends what do they think when they hear me singing.  The answers revealed that my singing was received as a (sorry for the lack of humbleness) gift. The word for gift in french is “cadeau”, which is pronounced cado (eau = o). I wanted my name to sound correctly in Portuguese (my mother tongue) so it became Cadô.