"A Felicidade" (Happiness) is a bossa nova classic composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim with lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes in 1958. Written for the French-Brazilian film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus), directed by Marcel Camus, it was sung by Agostinho dos Santos in the opening credits. The film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1959 and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1960.
The song is rooted in A minor, moving fluidly between minor and major tonalities to create a bittersweet harmonic landscape. The lyric meditates on the fleeting nature of happiness, comparing it to a dewdrop on a petal or a feather in the wind. Harmonically, the piece exemplifies the bossa nova idiom—samba rhythms fused with cool jazz chord voicings and subtle tension notes. The gently undulating melody and sophisticated harmonic shifts offer rich possibilities for improvisation, while the song's philosophical depth sets it apart from lighter bossa nova fare.
The definitive recording is from the 1974 album Elis & Tom, where Elis Regina and Jobim himself perform a breathtakingly intimate duet backed by lush string arrangements, recorded in Los Angeles. The Vince Guaraldi Trio's 1962 album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus also deserves mention as an inventive jazz piano trio reinterpretation of the film's soundtrack.
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