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BIO

Felipe Lion was born in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Grandson of a Portuguese guitarist and son of a couple of small publishers, he was encouraged from an early age to experience all forms of art, as a compulsory part of his training. At age 10, already living in Sao Paulo, he began to seriously study music: piano, guitar and music theory at the Municipal School of Music, but it was literature that really directed him towards the artistic career. Seeing a newspaper article about the Sao Paulo Juvenile Literature Academy, he gathered half a dozen newly written poems – in fact, his only poems – and applied to one of the chairs that were being contested. To his surprise, he was one of the chosen ones, the youngest of them, coming to have direct contact with the main figures of the literary and journalistic scene of Sao Paulo in the early ‘80s.

Prominent names at that time passed through the room the Juvenile Literature Academy occupied in the Monteiro Lobato Library, such as Ignacio de Loyola Brandão, Ivan Angelo, Torrieri Guimarães, Lourenço Diaféria, Marcos Rey and many others. There, lectures, readings, workshops and various other literary activities were held. During this period, Felipe Lion began to publish stories and poems in newspapers and literary magazines. A Folha de Sao Paulo came to give an entire page of its children’s supplement, the now extinct Folinha, for his story O Peixe Voador (The Flying Fish). He also published two books of poems, in small editions: Berração and Antologia do Lixo (Anthology of Trash).

At age 17, he became passionate about a dancer and dancing, and then he trained to become a classical dancer. He perfected his knowledge with a season at the school of the National Ballet of Cuba, after which, already back in Brazil, he formed the Ballet Camerata Paulista, with a group of young dancers. 

Despite a promising start with a tour across the southern part of the country and several invitations to other presentations inside and outside Brazil, the company had to close its activities due to lack of sponsorship. Lion was then in the dilemma of abandoning ballet or pursuing a career abroad, leaving behind family and friends. He opted to abandon dancing slippers, but not before doing a final work as a dancer with a short but remarkable participation in the musical Elas por Ela (Them for Her) with Marília Pêra in the starring role.

After abandoning dancing, Lion turned his energies to music and, together with guitarist Robert Scherb and bassist Celso Freire, he formed the art-rock band 
Sex FanzineSex Fanzine‘s dense and theatrical compositions, which came to use a semi-naked actress in their performances, were successful in the underground scene of Sao Paulo and the band regularly performed in major nightclubs of the ‘90s, such as the legendary Dama Xoc and Aeroanta. Sex Fanzine has never recorded an album, although for at least twice it comes very close to signing a major label deal. However, your recordings on K7 tapes, duplicated by hand, were much desired by friends and fans.

With Sex Fanzine’s end and after some time of solo presentations, Lion formed a new band, Merlim, with Junior Gaspari (Drummer of Sex), Zé Luiz Zambianchi (bass) and Jax Molina (electric guitar). The band debuted at Popular nightclub on October 5, 1998, at a party where they released their first EP. Merlim continued playing and releasing EPs until in 2008 they finally released A Tempestade (The Storm), produced by Brazilian rock star Kiko Zambianchi. Without warning, the band ended their activities in 2013 while recording a new album.

Almost immediately, Lion began work on a new musical project, Last Aliens in Rio, with the idea of creating a different sound having Bossa Nova as a starting point. The debut album, Teu Doce Jeito de Dizer Adeus (The Lovely Way You Say Goodbye), was released in June 2015 and remained for several weeks on the Brazilian Top Charts in iTunes. Teu Doce Jeito de Dizer Adeus also had a good international repercussion, especially in South Korea and Japan.

The second album, Bossa Nova Hotel, was released in September 2016 by the Italian label RNC Music, immediately entering the general best-selling list of iTunes Brazil. The bases of the repertoire are Bossas Novas in 7/8 time signature, Lion’s trademark, such as the very “carioca” (from Rio) Onde Tu Tá? (Where Are You?) – Lion’s homage to the city where he was born. Another Bossa in 7/8, Musa Urbana (Urban Muse), stayed for several months at South Korea’s Bossa and Jazz Top Charts.

Almost every song from both albums was chosen to be a part of several Jazz and Lounge Music compilations, released by labels from around the world, as well as many playlists created by music curators, such as Future Hits, available in Air France flights.

Índia (2019) is an album that came to consolidate the musical language of this project and achieved a great repercussion, mainly thanks to the success of Índia (tarde de Sol), included, also, in the playlist Café Bossa, an official Spotify playlists.

O Sono Dela (2021), the first single after the success of India, can be considered a slight change in the artistic direction of Last Aliens in Rio, which tries to combine elements of electronic music with its refined Bossa Nova. Still on this path, a new single, Pétalas Elétricas (2021), and one collabOnly Love Can Lead Us (2021), with the Italian musician Massimo Bottini a.k.a. Max Gabin, from the famous duo Gabin.

Despite being focused on his music career – including having just released the singles: O Sono Dela – Acoustique (02/2022), Pétalas Elétricas – Acoustique (06/2022) and Havana Skies (10/2022) – Felipe Lion has not forgotten literature and plans a comeback. After having published the book of poems A Arte da Automutilação (Ateliê Editorial, 2013), Lion is working on the philosophical essay The State and Death: the right to kill and die; plus a new book of poems.