by Alvaro Neder
In less than a year, the Mamonas Assassinas became a huge national success, having sold one million copies of their only album, Mamonas Assassinas (1995), with the hits "Vira-Vira," "Pelados em Santos," "Robocop Gay," and "Sabão Crá-Crá." Their career was tragically interrupted by a plane crash. The group started in 1989 as the Legião Urbana/Rush cover band Utopia, still without Dinho. Two years later, they recorded an independent album which was a complete commercial failure, already with the soon-to-be famous vocalist. It was when they decided to dedicate themselves to sarcasm, changing the band's name, that they struck it big. Soon afterward, in 1995, they were hired by EMI-Odeon and had immediate success.