Recovering from a surgical procedure, the musician lamented the current state of showbusiness and criticized the “new artistic order that favors partying”
As previously reported, Guilherme Arantes He underwent a cardiac procedure on December 26th: a catheterization with angioplasty, which was not scheduled, but was successful. Thus, the musician had to cancel his next commitments — such as a show on New Year’s Eve in Santos (SP) and another performance at Navio do New Clothes —, as he would need absolute rest for 10 days.
Feeling well enough to be able to publish on social media, Arantes took advantage of the moment of recovery and the turn of the year to announce, on his Facebook profile, that he will take a break from his career in 2025. Apparently, the treatment health problem was not the cause, just the last straw: the artist is dissatisfied with the current state of the music industry and showbusiness.
In a long text, Guilherme said he was not “bearing more” the context in which you need to work. He criticized what he calls “new artistic order that privileges the party, the encounter, the mix, the ‘immersive experience’ that the concert market offers”. Promising to return in 2026, he made it clear that he felt gratitude for the fans he gained and the opportunities to play live, but admitted to feeling a “fish out of water”.
Read the full statement below, available on its Facebook page.
“Happy New Year everyone.
See you in 2026!
No, you didn’t read it wrong, nor was I wrong.
That’s right: 2025 is already partially drawn ‘for’ me, and partially drawn ‘by’ me.
I’m not saying ‘goodbye’ to anything, just see you soon. Unlike most of my professional colleagues, I am an agent without an agenda.
Zero promises, zero commitments to continue this compulsory journey called a ‘career’. I kick the bucket, I rebel to survive.
I can’t stand it anymore, I’m a bizarre replicant, dislocated in a game where I lost the thread.
I have a problem with what I will generically call ‘collective processes’.
What is ‘collective’? Crowd. Crowd of people. I respect everything, but I may have developed a sense of awkwardness.
I love playing for people, I have love and intensity in the message, in the public role.
But I confess that – not today – I’ve been feeling like a fish out of the aquarium.
And even more so now, that I took a hit and found myself forced to ‘not be’ at two events that would help me feel ‘still serving something’… in this new artistic order that privileges the party, the encounter, the mix, the ‘immersive experience’ that the concert market offers.
I’m very upset and reflective, questioning, if you want to know.
It’s not an easy time.
It would be much easier if I relaxed and enjoyed life and savored success, giving myself over to ‘play for cash’… but I’m not like that.
I’m not exactly a ‘performer’ in a world dominated by entertainment.
Compulsive and compulsory composer by birth and by choice, sometimes I feel like I’m not good for much in this world, except for a select group – thank God, I thank and appreciate every day – of appreciators of my artistic evolution. I also thank the Universe for bringing me half a century of music with meaning and consistency of unconditional love.
Use for showbiz is another thing.
I served for a while… to have this immediate use of entertainment… because when youth and the musical fashion of two decades favored me… I managed to perform a little and help “throw the party” that the world gave me. charged…
I haven’t been unhappy with it, quite the opposite. I really value it, I am very proud that the quality of our generation has managed to make an indelible impression and perpetuate itself with great durability for the good of the world.
I don’t force myself to do so, but I give myself the right to be a stranger, like Lennon and Harrison, to be among the two most delusional of Beatlemania…
I think I’m old and grumpy. I caught goat.
Maybe this will pass. He had taken.
Show, spectacle, audience, lecture, coaching, convention, public party, ballad, turn, carnival, crowd, march, demonstration, congress, rally, mass, everything that is ‘collective’ sometimes seems questionable, manipulated, addictive and possibly wicked.
Don’t get me wrong.
Our world is almost entirely balanced by collectivization.
It’s not even a question of ideologies.
It is the Revolution of Ortega y Gasset in its overwhelming splendor.
There are too many people, an anthill.
The ‘entertainment’ in vogue is replaced by the old concept of Art.
Showbiz is driven by ‘functionality’, we always read reviews of ‘Festivals’ with the so-called characteristic: ‘What worked and what didn’t work’ – this is the motto of the functionality of crowd events.
Everything revolves around the algebra of sales, engagements, numbers of followers, viewers, views, executions, streams,
I’m incredibly envious of Bach, a Kapellmeister, by candlelight in Leipzig, performing a cantata on the church organ… for me, that’s what Art is.
Is it too much to want? Missing Art?
When I was a child, the recording world existed.
And I grew up dreaming of being a composer, a Vanzolini, a Jobim, a Johnny Alf.
My father collected records, and the records were recorded in the studios, released by record labels, with pomp and circumstance, in specialized stores.
The album was the only way for music to reach the world…
It was a luxury: conductors, arrangers, musicians, studios, microphones and very expensive valve tables, everyone in suits and ties, it was a world of dreams.
Ahmet Ertegun arranging the microphone for Ray Charles… Sinatra smoking a cigarette in front of an RCA Dx77… photos of Elizete, Caymmi in front of a 44 BX…
Luiz Bonfá, Baden, Edu Lobo, Menescal, Carlos Lyra, Luiz Eça! My heroes. And Tom? Vinícius? That was cowardice…
Ah… the music, the music, so much passion!
As a teenager, I dreamed of being Serge Gainsbourg, Gary Brooker, Ray Manzarek, Vangelis, Burt Bacharach, Ivan, Antonio Adolfo, Taiguara!
I attended the Record auditoriums, at the end of the 60s, at the song festivals, where the main protagonists were the composers.
How can you not carry that concept with you for the rest of your life? I saw in action, still young guys, Edu, Chico, Sidney Miller, Maranhão, Capinam, Vandré, Gil, Caetano, Tom Zé, and later in the FICs, Guarabyra, Antonio Adolfo and Tibério Gaspar, Nelson Motta, Danilo Caymmi, Zé Rodrix, Milton , Fernando Brant, Walter Franco, Taiguara, Ivan Lins and his MAU group, Aldir, Gonzaguinha, if I forget here later I rectify… Take a look:
The shows were an embryonic complement.
Monumental artists held shows on a small, at best average, scale. There wasn’t even a whole industrial technology, a monumental structure that started to specifically favor shows on an industrial scale everywhere, ‘live’ taking over the main business at the same time that the phonographic business was being digitally scrapped… Showbiz simply killed the music. Simple as water kills fire.
Since I mentioned the Beatles, it’s notable that, after Rubber Soul, they didn’t play any more shows and lived to create, in a few years, the most important RockPop work of all time… why did Lennon ‘get the aversion’ to play for cash?
John scoffed at ‘play for cash’.
Today, this aversion would be unthinkable, wouldn’t it?
It wouldn’t be. I’m on that threshold.
Showbiz kills.
Music doesn’t kill.
Over time, ‘performers’ proliferated, the shows became an industry, a big ‘live’ circus, the audience sizes continued to change… and we arrived at what we have.
Where did we end up?
Showbiz swallowed the song, at least how I dreamed the song.
Some say that music is dead!
It will be?
I ask… because at this turning point… turning of the year… personal turning point… I, the composer, am in full swing… and I know exactly where I should go.
The path seems very clear to me, there is a clairvoyance in my solitude.
The Kappelmeister awaits me with open arms.
Wherever I go.
I’m lost, but… could I be a visionary?
Happy New Year to the world.
See you in 2026.”
Current Brazilian pop artists that Guilherme Arantes highlights
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
