"These are the lines that define us" - Carris' love song for the city of Lisbon

When the briefing the idea came to the desk of Canal180, a television channel and production company in Porto. "was to make a new institutional film". "Carris celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, and is in the process of a major renovation of its offer of streetcars and buses, in its mission to make the use of public transport in Lisbon more comfortable and more attractive"tells LPP João Vasconcelos, director of Canal180. "But this process was special." And from the original plan to create a mere institutional film, we came up with the idea of making a song - a love song from Carris to its city of Lisbon.

So it was born, "These are the lines that define us" - a song that brings together newcomer Silly (Maria Miguel Bentes), who will release his first album in 2024, and the well-known producer Fredby Orelha Negra. The song was presented on the occasion of Carris' 151st anniversary, celebrated this year, and is a declaration of the carrier's love for the city of Lisbon. “If a bus or streetcar could speak, what would it say to the streets it passes through, to the light of the city it sees, to the people it carries? It was with this metaphorical and more poetic representation that we came up with the song we're listening to now"The duo, Silly and Fred, told LPP that it was easy to respond to Carris' request to create a gentle but beautiful love song to the city. "The invitation came to us through Canal180; and it was a nice surprise and a happy challenge that we kept."

"As far as the sounds and tones of the music are concerned, we always wanted to maintain an idea of lightness, serenity and, in a way, ensure something aspirational. The playing of the guitar suggests this envelopment and delicacy, some simple elements that appear throughout the song also help to build this idea and a rhythmic pattern that guides us and marks out a path."describes the duo of artists. "The lyrics are a metaphor for that same declaration of love, a representation of the tribute we had been asked to pay by Carris in order to meet the challenge of creating a beautiful song for the campaign. That was the main motto of our creative inspiration: a declaration of love for the city."

The result can be heard on Spotify, Apple Music e YouTube Music.

The song is accompanied by a video produced by Canal180. The video that started out as an institutional film but became a music video. João Vasconcelos, director of the channel/production company, explains how it all came about:

"We've been working with Carris for a few years. The project was to make a new institutional film. The communications team started with the concept of reflections (seeing the city through the windows of the buses/trams), but felt that the film needed something more that could only be conveyed through music. We were searching for original music (national and international) for over a month, until we changed tack and spoke to Fred [from Orelha Negra]. We spoke on the phone for 10 minutes and ended the conversation with a proposal from him: "Can I propose a vocal?". I wasn't very convinced, for fear of what the lyrics would be like under pressure. But we all spoke to the Carris team, who gave Fred carte blanche to go ahead. And a few weeks later, when the music arrived, he turned the institutional campaign upside down. He turned the movie into a music video, an ode to Lisbon. It wasn't in the plans at all. It was the Carris team that read it and wanted to do it."

- João Vasconcelos, Carris

For Carris, this song "is a tribute to the harmony and beauty of the city and to the unison with which Lisbon and Carris give themselves, every day, to welcome and move the people of Lisbon. In this campaign, which is based on visuals that capture and mirror the inseparable reflections of Lisbon and Carris, the musical dimension is given centrality in an original way". The song was accompanied by a multi-media advertising campaign.