Born in Santiago do Boqueirão (RS), on the border with Argentina, on December 4, 1915, Túlio Piva became known for his style of composing and playing the guitar. On February 11, 1993, samba gaucho said goodbye to one of its main representatives.

Renowned for his unique guitar strumming, a talented composer and influenced by rhythms ranging from tango to samba, Túlio Piva marked the music of Rio Grande do Sul and of Brazil.

The composer gained prominence for his pioneering spirit in composing sambas with a “gaucho accent”, with a poetic mix of his border influences, tango and Rio de Janeiro samba. A paradoxical artist: a gaucho descendant of Italians, who in his songs talked about life on the favela, tambourine and batucada.

Author of songs recorded by renowned names such as Elis Regina, Elza Soares, Jair Rodrigues, Germano Mathias, Demônios da Garoa, Noite Ilustrada and Luiz Vieira, among Túlio's main works the following stand out: the sambas "Gente da Noite", known as the anthem of Porto Alegre's bohemia and the name of its famous nightclub, which operated for a decade (1980s) on Avenida João Pessoa. Porto Alegre/RS, "Pandeiro de Prata", the great winner of the II South-Brazilian Popular Song Festival (1968), and "Tem Que Ter Mulata", which received dozens of recordings and interpretations, including in Russia, the United States and Venezuela.

Túlio Piva, alongside his fellow countryman Lupicínio Rodrigues, is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in popular music in Rio Grande do Sul of all time.