The predominant figure among a group of musicians from north-eastern Brazil who added their region's traditional rhythms to Brazilian popular music during the ‘70s, Djavan is one of the country's more eclectic singer-songwriters. His poetic Portuguese lyrics are as deep as his voice is rich, but his music achieved a whole new level of appeal when he added a jazzy take on Stevie Wonder's funk to his sound in the '80s. Djavan's freshly syncopated pop-funk, sometimes sung in English, put him among an elite core of socially concerned internationalists like Sting and Peter Gabriel.