A Novidade is a Brazilian song first released in 1986 by Os Paralamas do Sucesso on the reggae and dub influenced album Selvagem? The track was written by Bi Ribeiro, Herbert Vianna, João Barone, with lyrics by Gilberto Gil who crafted the words after the band sent him the instrumental at a distance—he reportedly wrote the lyric in a hotel room while looking at the sea. The song explores social inequality, using a mermaid imagery as a metaphor for the disparity between those who must struggle for food and those who merely gaze at plenty. The original release was followed by a 1994 unplugged version on the album Unplugged, and there are later versions including a 2012 collaboration with Ivete Sangalo and Caetano Veloso. The music video for A Novidade was shot across 16 Rio–Niterói ferries, portraying overcrowding and the everyday life of Brazilian workers.
