Air Supply - "Soap Operas: A History of Success in Brazil!" (Part 1)

What's in common between Air Supply and the Brazilian soap operas? Graham and Russell probably were never aware about that, but those TV dramas were the vehicle which most served as massive promotion and solidification of their huge success in the country during the '80s and '90s, thanks to the soundtrack albums from some of its most popular soap operas.

It's amazing how the inclusion of a song by an artist as a theme for some of the main characters in a soap opera, practically, can guarantee their success in the media, increasingly hungry for something new. Thanks to the insistent playing of their songs, almost every day during the most exciting moments of the plots, artists - before unknown, leave their total anonymity and become the darlings of the media overnight, while the promotion of new hits by artists already known in the country, only further solidifies their status as popularly regarded artists who will continue grabbing legions of fans to their shows. The selling of their singles and albums usually hit records, while their new songs can be turned into instant hits, giving birth to brand new pop idols.
 

In 1980, nothing was heard of Air Supply in Brazil until the end of that year, when a new ballad in English began to be played as the theme of one of the leading characters of the 8 pm’s soap opera, Coração Alado ("Winged Heart", broadcast on prime-time TV in Brazil) . It was All out of Love (Catucha’s theme, played by actress Deborah Duarte). The song quickly started to be played on all Brazilian main radio stations and soon reached the top of all charts. Air Supply was arriving in Brazil, despite of their early success in Australia, the United States and other countries since 1975 through their early hits Lost in Love"and Love and Other Bruises (his very first one) . The original soundtrack album with the international themes for that soap opera would easily become one of the bestselling albums of the decade - the gold era of vynil, which would also include mega hits like "The Winner Takes It All" (by ABBA) and "Survive" (by Jimmy Buffet). All out of Love would definitely open all doors to Air Supply new songs in Brazil.


Thanks to the release of their first album (Lost in Love) in the country in the late 1980, fans of those harmonious refined voices would be delighted with two more big hits that were coming in early 1981! Every Woman in the World and the album title track would get to all radios with the same power of All out of Love, thus leading their album to the top of the charts. Despite all the success, the Brazilians still knew very little about Air Supply.

Due the arrival of their new album, The One That You Love, 1981 would be another important year for the guys in Brazil. It all happened while they had several singles of the previous album being incessantly played on the radios. In 1982, the band would have a new song included as one of the main theme in another soap opera and their popularity would only grow stronger and stronger. Even the Nights Are Better, taken from his 1982 album "Now And Forever", was included on the soundtrack of the 7 pm's soap Elas Por Elas (Natalia’s theme, played by Joan Fomm). Absolute success again and Air Supply seemed the only thing you could hear on the radios, at all kinds of balls, simply everywhere!
 

In the late 1983 and early 1984, SIGLA, a music company owned by TV Globo, for some reason did not get the original phonogram (they were all bought from the artists record companies specially to feature the Globo TV soap opera soundtracks) of the brand new single of the guys. It would be precisely that which would become in the future, perhaps their greatest “anthem” among their fans: Making Love out of Nothing at All. Thus, as in other cases like that, SIGLA would choose to include the song played by an unknown band, Fresh Air. The soap opera name was Champagne (Ronaldo and Veronica’s love theme, respectively interpreted by Carlos Augusto Strazzer and Maria Isabel de Lizandra), which despite the faux pas, its soundtrack album sold thousands of copies by hitchhiking, of course, the overwhelming success of the original track by Air Supply being played all over the planet. They reigned supreme in the pop rock romantic scenery of the country.

1985 would be a year when the band would hit the charts again, due the huge success of Just As I Am and I Can Wait Forever, which had begun still in 1984. The second was included as one of the main themes for the 7 pm’s soap Um Sonho A Mais (One Dream More – as a theme for Joaquim, played by Edson Celulari). In 1986, another song started playing in the country, which would hook the hearts of their fans forever. Lonely Is The Night reached the top of the charts easily, making an unbeatable trio along with Just As I Am and I Can Wait Forever, which would still remain steadily on top for a long time. The most intriguing about Lonely Is The Night is that it ended up becoming such a strange case of absolute success whereas  you didn’t know where the song came from. There were not any new singles or albums of Air Supply being released that time in Brazil, but the song became fast a huge hit for most fans. Lonely Is The Night, I Can Wait Forever and Just As I Am would remain on top for many years ahead, while the public would still be trying to recover from the "infectious" success of Making Love out of Nothing at All.