The white head of hair turned in slow circles on the giant screen above the Palco Mundo stage while Gilberto Gil walked, unhurried, toward the microphone, dressed in white with silver studs and cradling his guitar. It was Monday night, September 7, day four of Rock in Rio, and the first image the crowd caught of the 84-year-old from Bahia was of a man who takes his time arriving, perhaps because he has walked that path so many times before.

The line of the night came the first time Gil spoke to the audience. "I was here at the first Rock in Rio. Maybe this is my last one. I'm tired, let's see," he said, according to G1, before opening the set with Cérebro Eletrônico, a 1969 song whose verses claim the freedom to decide whether to live or die.

For a tired man, he still owned the stage. It was his fifth performance at the festival, after appearing twice in the inaugural 1985 edition and again in 2001 and 2022. His voice was frail and he moved little, but he played 16 songs in just over an hour, from Andar com Fé and Toda Menina Baiana to Realce, Pela Internet and Palco. He spoke in English, covered Bob Marley and Rita Lee, and brought producer Liminha on bass for Vamos Fugir, from 1984. According to Rolling Stone Brasil, the audience answered the farewell hint with sighs and protests, and the set came just hours before Elton John, playing one of the final shows of his career in Brazil.

A goodbye in installments

The hint of retirement is not new. Gil arrived at Rock in Rio after a run of roughly 30 concerts of the Tempo Rei tour, which crossed Brazil, Argentina and Chile and ended in March at Allianz Parque stadium in São Paulo. Those shows were sold as a farewell, though Gil made clear at the time he was only leaving large-scale touring behind. This week he seemed to be saying goodbye to one more stage: days before the festival, he posted polls on social media asking followers to help choose the setlist.

Gil has been at the center of Brazilian music for six decades. Born in Salvador, he was a founder of Tropicália, the late-1960s movement that merged Brazilian popular music with rock and studio experimentation, alongside Caetano Veloso, and later served as Brazil's culture minister from 2003 to 2008. Rock in Rio, first held in Rio de Janeiro in 1985, has since grown into one of the largest music festivals in the world. Whether Gil accepts another invitation is now an open question, and on Monday he left it hanging.

In the end, the night returned to where it began: the white head spinning slowly on the screen. "I'm tired, let's see," Gil said. Whether that head will spin at another festival, not even Gil himself knows.