University professor and former journalist José Manuel Simões has teamed up with cartoonist Rodrigo de Matos to reveal intimate behind-the-scenes stories of some 50 famous musicians and singers, including the likes of Sting, Tina Turner, Ben Harper, Celine Dion, Iggy Pop, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and many more, in his new book IE! In Intimacy with the Stars of Music.
The book, which was launched in late September, brings together several years of work produced by José Manuel Simões when he wrote about the music industry for various publications.
“Initially, I tried to be a vehicle between the artists and the public, always trying to be faithful to the interviews, impartial and objective”, says the author.
Working firstly for Jornal de Notícias, José established many close relationships of mutual respect with the artists, many of whom he got to know more closely over time.


“Years later, when the Correio da Manhã newspaper invited me to write weekly chronicles in their supplement ‘Vidas’ (Lives) about the music stars, I started to break with the idea of being a bridge or link, and instead tried to become more like a kind of portrait artist who, always with a love for the truth, was motivated to tell unusual episodes and lesser known facets of the stars, who in most cases I learnt to admire beyond the stage”.
The stories are further brought to life in the book through the illustrations of cartoonist and friend of the author, Rodrigo de Matos.
“When I issued the challenge to my friend and award-winning cartoonist Rodrigo de Matos to illustrate each of these 50 stories, I knew from the outset that I could count on his intelligent humour, irreverence and sharpness. I must confess, however, that his talent surprised me as I received weekly e-mails from him with the results of his inspiration”, José notes.
“When José invited me to illustrate this collection of stories about the lesser known side of these great stars of music, it didn’t take long for me to get excited about the idea,” says Rodrigo, who works for Ponto Final newspaper and Expresso magazine. “I knew that throughout his career as a journalist in the music business, he had accumulated a lot of amusing behind-the-scenes stories. It was fun to read one after the other and it fills me with joy that the readers can now also have that opportunity”.