Biography
The carioca (native of Rio de Janeiro) Fernando Vidal is a guitarist, composer and music producer. He started his career with the group The Way, along with John Sullivan. In 1983, he went to Los Angeles, where he studied for 2 years at the Musicians Institute of Technology. Upon returning to Brazil, he recorded with John Sullivan and Pedro Gil, the CD Milionarios da Cobertura, released in 1984. In the following years, Vidal recorded with many artists and toured with Via Negromonte, Ed Motta, and Fernanda Abreu, performing in important festivals, such as Rock in Rio. In 1991, after a performance at the Sugar Loaf Mountain, he was invited by Marina Lima to record three tracks on her album and to go on tour with her throughout Brazil, U.S. and Europe, sharing his time between Marina Lima and Fernanda Abreu. Since then, the two singers have continued their collaboration, resulting in the production of tracks in many albums such as Do Seu Olhar (Fernando Vidal/Fernanda Abreu), Zone Norte, Zona Sul. Megalapole-cidade (Fernando Vidal/Fernanda Abreu/FaustoFawcett), Passara II (Fernando Vidal/Marina Lima/Ronaldo Bastos) e Experimenta (Zélia Duncan/Fernando Vidal/Christiaan Oyens). Fernando toured with both singers around Brazil and abroad, performing in Paris, New York, Summer Fest (Germany), Montreux (Switzerland) and in Rock in Rio III.
In 1999, he performed on the TV special Yellow Submarine, with Beto Guedes, Flavio Venturini, Cassia Eller, Zizi Possi, Roberto Frejat and Samuel Rosa, among others, playing Beatles songs. He also recorded some tracks for the Zélia Duncan’s CD “Acesso”, with whom he also toured.
During his career, he recorded many different styles of music with many different artists, including Gabriel o Pensador, Netinho, Lenine, Luiz Melodia, Fat Family, Guilherme Arantes, Elba Ramalho, Gilberto Gil, Cassiano, Daniela Mercury, e Paula Toller, as well as performing with Lulu Santos and Herbert Vianna.
He is currently a member of Seu Jorge’s band, which tours in Brazil and abroad, as well as performing in shows with Marina Lima, Fernanda Abreu and the FERNANDO VIDAL TRIO next to Mac William’s drums and the electric bass of Andre Carneiro.
How we met:
Rio de Janeiro is an unbelievably musical city. After spending just a couple days there, the word was spreading fast among the music community, the artists we were recording began introducing us to their friends and band mates, and the music kept flowing. We were fortunate to get hooked up with a guitarist as talented as Fernando Vidal!