Suvinil Top Hits: talent from Jaboatão

It all started in 1997 as we were celebrating Quality Week in Jaboatão, Pernambuco, Brazil, through a chance conversation with my colleague from work, Cecília.   Cecília had the idea of organizing a musical parody competition, as an opportunity for all our colleagues to express, through music, the whole feeling of togetherness and pride in being a BASF employee.   This is what happened ...  

On the day of the presentation, the ADC (Classified Sports Association of Jaboatão), our ‘Macaw (Arara) Corner’ – as we affectionately called our association was sold out and we had a presenter, a jury and even organized supporters. It was a great success!  

Since then we have held this competition for four years running at the request of the colleagues themselves, who wrote musical parodies on various subjects, including product quality, ISO 9000, the ORION and SAP projects, the environment, production records, product launches (e.g. ULTRA and TEXTURATTO paints) ...

We did not hold the competition in 2001. And that was how the CD came about. I had the idea of compiling the highest-placed pieces of music between 1997 and 2000. Then we got our colleagues together (the ones who had written the parodies), we hired a recording studio (you can’t imagine the patience of the young guy at the studio) and two weeks later we recorded the CD titled Suvinil Top Hits. We arranged for the covers to be made up and prepared them for distribution.  

We reproduced 100 copies and gave them to each of our colleagues during Quality Week in November 2001. At the time, they had sung the music from the CD. The event led to the discovery of the talent. They are not professionals singers.  

It was a very happy day for everyone, mainly for the singers and composers who saw their work on disc, and also a day of great pride for me and Cecília, as we coordinated the whole process.  

I am still at BASF (Cecília is no longer there) and I am even happier to see this worldwide recognition. It is a big thankyou for the talented composers of Jaboatão: Joseleide Dias, Ramiro Graciliano, João Bernardino, Severina Alves, Kátia Vieira, Shirley Mendonça, Maria do Carmo, Raquel Oliveira, José Geraldo, Carlos Simões and Gildo França.