‘I don’t have time to waste with Neymar’, says Zélia Duncan, the target of the star’s wrath

The experience of publishing texts in a newspaper column, seven years ago, made Zélia Duncan exercise her talent (plus this one) for writing and encouraged the singer-songwriter, 57, to launch her first book, “Benditas Coisas que eu I don’t know”.

As in a chat with the reader, she writes about her pleasures, inspirations, passions, experiences and recent events. Matters, for the most part, pleasant, and that are far from annoyance, like the one that Zélia went through at the end of last year, when fighting a legal battle with Neymar.

All because of a post on Twitter. “I’m not a footballer, but Neymar seems to me so far a promise as an athlete and a disappointment as a citizen. Do you want respect? Give yourself to him and show service. Oh, and pay your taxes!”, wrote the singer, in 2021, at the end of a national team game.

The post irritated the player, who went to court to demand explanations. The attacker’s lawyers asked for clarification on eleven specific points, among them, the part of “disappointment as a citizen” – this seems to have been the “x” of the issue, which most bothered the player.

The action was extinguished and each one went their own way. “If I won this lawsuit, it would become a lawsuit or a criminal complaint. I don’t have time to waste with Neymar or he with me. What am I to this guy? I still don’t understand what happened”, he confesses. “It was foolishness that upset me.”

Zélia became the name of a public library in Costa Barros, in the North Zone of Rio, and also recently debuted as an actress. She is the protagonist of the short film ‘A Wild Patience Brought Me Up Here’, in which she plays a lonely biker who gets involved with younger and lively girls from Niterói, her hometown, by the way.

Érica Sarmet’s film brought to the debate the generational differences between members of the lesbian community (Zélia, like her screen partner Bruna Linzmeyer, prefers to be called “dyke”), and ended up winning a special award from the jury at the Sundance in January. “It’s a film that talks about my generation, which was highly repressed”, she says.

The singer-actress-writer knows her strength, the influence she exerts among the younger audience. She is, after all, an opinion maker, long before the term became fashionable. “I’m at a point where, honestly, I can talk about anything that will help the other”, admits the artist. “I fight because I’m super well accepted by all kinds of dykes. I’m one of them.”

To F5, Zélia also spoke about her participation in Lula’s campaign clip, the new version of “Lula lá”, in which she appears in a prominent position, holding a star and singing. “I’ve never been a PT member, but there’s nothing to think about. We’re deciding whether to elect a democrat or a fascist. It’s not a party. It’s a matter of character, human rights and people.”