Uday Vellozo, with stage name of Benito di Paula[1] (born November 28, 1941), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and writer.

[2] He is known for his characteristic samba that started when he was young and sang in hotels and nightclubs in Rio de Janeiro, where he did not play a specific genre.

[4] Uday Vellozo achieved national fame as Benito di Paula, a name chosen by him and Alfredo Motta, a great promoter of his career who invited him when he was between 15 and 16 years old to sing at the Avenida Hotel, located on Dante Laginestra Street, in downtown from Nova Friburgo.

Benito continued to play the piano in nightclubs Santos and in the city of São Paulo, as well as at Samba Cathedral, in the Bixiga neighborhood, where he often performed.

[6] The song "Canção para o Nosso Amor" earned Benito, the main soundtrack of the telenovela Nino, o Italianinho by TV Tupi from 1969, in addition to the album itself.

On this same album, he also performed four compositions of his own, including "Violão Não Se Empresta a Ninguém", which was the song that ended up selling the LP.

[9] Shortly after Di Paula's historic performance on the Chacrinha show, still on the now defunct TV Tupi, Chico Buarque, in the midst of the recordings for the LP of the soundtrack of Carlos Diegues, When Carnival Comes, Buaque would leave the house for the studio whistling the melody.

Even more curiously, after a moment along the way, Chico's brain began to spontaneously offer him variations on Benito di Paula's original lyrics, in the more well-known "buarquian style", by then already consolidated.

But in 1973 he burst onto the charts with the third "Um Novo Samba", in whose cover he already appeared with his mustache and goatee, long hair, in addition to chains, earrings, bracelets etc..

Di Paula also recorded the song "Último Andar" for the national soundtrack of the drama O Espigão (Rede Globo), aired between April and November of the same year.

One of the times he left the show's recording studio, he found Adoniran Barbosa, who gave him a piece of paper with half a song done and asked Benito to continue.

Benito continued the song and later, together with Adoniran, they delivered it to the group Os Três Moraes, with the title "Não Precisa Muita Coisa".

In the same year, alongside Elizeth Cardoso, Paulinho da Viola, Gilberto Gil, Jorge Ben Jor, Beth Carvalho, Sônia Santos, Quinteto Violado and Cláudia, was part of the Brazilian delegation that participated in the Midem Festival (Marché International du Disque et de l'Édition Musicale), in the city of Cannes, in France.

With all these songs gaining fame with each album released, Benito is nominated for the Press Trophy of best singer of the same year, competing against Roberto Carlos and Chico Buarque, and ends up winning the award.

He also makes his first appearance at the Golden Globe from Rede Globo, with the song "Vai Ficar Na Saudade" , yielding a music video in the same year.

[3] These critics created the pejorative label "samba-joia" for the type of music that Benito did, they always existed as said before, but at each moment they became more frequent as time went by as he became more famous, but he never stopped defending himself, calling them "owners of samba" .

In the same year he recorded with the group Demônios da Garoa the soundtrack song "A Vida é Dura", which was the theme of the character Victor Valentim from the telenovela Ti-ti-ti from Rede Globo .

In addition to this song, there were others like "Sigo Te Amando", "Fonte Nova" and "Lagartixa Também Muda de Cor", which is believed to be a kind of indirect due to its letter.

He also records with Luiz Gonzaga the song "Viva Meu Padim", on the album " Forró de cabo a Rabo ", by the northeastern singer.

In 1990 he released the album "Fazendo Paixão on label RCA Victor", where we had his last song that burst on the radio, which had the name homonym, music that was a production of Chico Roque and Carlos Colla, and not Benito as usual.

In addition to this song, they also had others such as "A Vida é Bonita Sem Você", "Cigarra Marrom" (made for Alcione) and "Pedaços de Carinho".

He also had the special participation of Chico Anysio in the songs "O Amor é Um Jogo" and "Choro de Homem", latter being featured in one of the episodes of Escolinha do Professor Raimundo.

[3][19] In the second half of 1997, he started as a writer by publishing the book of short stories "Cantos e Contos do Benito di Paula".

In the first decade of the new millennium, Benito di Paula disappears from all media and rarely appears in an interview or music program.

In 2003, "Do Jeito Que A Vida Quer" (with Grupo Revelação) was one of the most played songs on segmented stations in samba in Rio de Janeiro and throughout Brazil.

That year, on the CNT program Calouros em Delirios, with Pedro de Lara, Benito completely removed his mustache and goatee, leaving his hair short to the nape of the neck, which caused strangeness among the public.

Among the hits presented are "Retalho de Cetin", "Mulher Brasileira", "Tudo Está No Seu Lugar", "Beleza Que é Você Mulher" and "Charlie Brown", in addition to "Ah, Como Eu Amei" (by his brothers Ney and Jota Vellozo) and "Me Dê Motivo" (Michael Sullivan and Paulo Massadas), accompanied by the band composed by Jorge Cardoso (musical direction), Ney Vellozo (guitar), nephew Kauan Vellozo (ukulele), Téo Lima (drums), Edu (bass), Luiz Felipe (seven-tone guitar) strings), Ivanildo, Pirulito and Esguleba (percussion), Jussara, Jurema, Jefferson and Nélio (backing vocals) and his son Rodrigo Vellozo on piano.

The DVD also included "Bandeira do samba", "Do Jeito Que a Vida Quer", "Como Dizia o Mestre", "Assobiar e Chupar Cana", "Se Não For Amor", "Osso Duro de Roer", "Maria baiana Maria", "Sanfona Branca" and "Violão Não Se Empresta a Ninguém".

[21] After the mourning, in 2020, together with his son Rodrigo, who would release his album, they made a song in tribute to André, entitled "Lagrimas no Meu Sorriso".

And on November 12 of the same year, she released a single with her son Rodrigo, entitled "O Infalível Zen" , and on the 28th of the same month a full album of the same name.