OpeningShow: Ricardo Pereira&Gospel Collective | Gospel Collective . & Ricardo Pereira | TEDxMarvila

It starts with a question nobody can quite answer. Actor Ricardo Pereira settles into a chair and starts turning it over out loud — is love a warm cup of coffee, or only the one you make for someone else? A dog staring down the front door, waiting? A hard goodbye? He never lands on a definition, because there isn't one — only the feeling of chasing it. Then the room shifts: the 50-voice Gospel Collective choir rises into "No Greater Love," building into a joyous, reworked "This Little Light of Mine" — "This little love of mine, I'm gonna let it shine" — and the question stops being something to answer and becomes something the whole room feels together. Gospel Collective is a ~50-voice Lisbon-based choir led by singer and conductor Manuela Oliveira, formed as a collective in 2010 with roots going back to 1999. Their repertoire spans African-American gospel, black spirituals, and afrogospel, performed in English, Portuguese, and Swahili.

Recent collaborations include Dino d'Santiago for the 25th of April celebrations in Seixal; "Variações" at the Belém Tower gardens with the Metropolitan Orchestra (accompanying Ana Bacalhau, Conan Osiris, Lena d'Água, Paulo Bragança, and Selma Uamusse); "Fado no Castelo" at São Jorge Castle with Raquel Tavares; São João nights in Porto with guitarist Marta Pereira da Costa; a Nelson Mandela tribute with Kalaf in Lisbon's Municipal Square; the Lux Frágil "Amazing Grace" concert with Kalaf and Moullinex; Red Bull Culture Clash at Coliseu de Lisboa with Moullinex, Da Chick, The Legendary Tigerman, Xinobi, and Marta Ren; "Rei Leão" at the Lisboa Ginásio Club in the CCB; and the Alive festival with D'Alva. They've also recorded and performed live with Jimmy P, Virgul, Selma Uamusse, Diogo Piçarra, Murta, Wraygunn, D'Alva, Rita Redshoes, Luísa Sobral, Marta Hugon, Miguel Ângelo, Carlos Martins Quinteto, SHOUT!, Fernando Cunha, Monda, Telenovela Lua de Mel, and Rock in Rio, among others.

They've toured internationally across Belgium, Italy, and Spain.

Here's a shorter version:

Ricardo Pereira is one of the most recognized Portuguese actors of his generation, with a career spanning more than two decades across Portugal, Brazil, and Spain. He made his stage debut in 2000, then broke through internationally in 2004 starring in the Rede Globo telenovela *Como uma Onda*. He's won two Golden Globes for Best Fiction Actor (*Amor, Amor*, *A Herança*), appeared in films including *O Crime do Padre Amaro* and *Amália*, and signed with Netflix in 2023 as a creative producer and actor. Recent work includes *Rabo de Peixe* and *Lume* (HBO Max), both 2025. Since 2020 he's served on the International Emmy Awards jury, and in 2017 was awarded the Order of Merit of Portugal by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx