''Malhação'' (, ''Young Hearts'' in English) is a Brazilian

soap-opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored b ...

that aired on

TV Globo TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air Television broadcasting, television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Gr ...

from 4 March 1995 to 3 April 2020. The series is targeted at a teenage audience. Each season runs for about a year with cast members changing every season.

History

The soap opera began in 1995, and was initially set in a fictional Gym Club called ''Malhação'' on

Barra da Tijuca Barra da Tijuca () (usually known as Barra) is an upper-class neighborhood or bairro in the Rio de Janeiro#West Zone, West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, located in the western portion of the city on the Atlantic Ocean. Barra is well known for it ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Through the years the setting varied each season. Although the name of the soap remained the same, it was set in the Múltipla Escolha ( en, Multiple Choice)

High School A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

for nine seasons. In the twenty-second season, the location returned to be a gym, the ''Gael's Martial Arts Gym'', placed within the art school ''Ribalta''. The following season brought the high school setting back. From the twenty-fourth season onwards, the setting was changed back to the "Academia Form". During the first fourteen seasons, each episode of ''Malhação'' began with a

cold open A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In Ameri ...

scene, preceded by a recap of the previous episodes, continuing the narrative that follows. This technique was removed at the beginning of the fifteenth season. The series has been broadcast in several countries by Globo Internacional, including

SIC The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...

(between 1995 and 2007, airing with the name "New Wave") in

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and by

ABC Spark ABC Spark is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel was launched on March 26, 2012, replacing the declining channel Dusk. ABC Spark is based on the U.S. subscription channel Freeform (previously ...

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Cancellation

The series was cancelled after 27 seasons on 28 September 2021. The final season, ''Malhação: Toda Forma de Amar'', finished with 253 episodes, a reduction from the planned 288 episodes that was forced by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The series had been renewed for a twenty-eighth season titled ''Malhação: Transformação'', written by Márcia Prates and Priscila Steinman, which also had its production suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic and postponed to 2021. ''Transformação'' was eventually scrapped and replaced by ''Malhação: Eu Quero é Ser Feliz'' written by Eduardo and Marcos Carvalho, until the series was cancelled altogether.

Plot

''Malhação'' revolves around the everyday life of teenagers, their conflicts, including school, friends, families, and especially their relationships, which occupy the central focus of all the seasons. Every season, a different couple of protagonists occupies the core of the whole storyline.

Cast

Similar to American

soap operas A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

and long-running television series, cast and characters change each season, but actors who have stayed for more than one season include

Gustavo Goulart Gustavo Goulart (born September 26, 1989) is a Brazilian actor and singer. He started his career at four years old, with films and series in his country of origin (Brazil), and also overseas, in many different countries. He had some roles at R ...

, Alexandre Slaviero, and Sérgio Hondjakoff.

Series overview

Theme songs

''Malhação'' has had 16 different theme songs:

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Malhacao Brazilian telenovelas TV Globo telenovelas 1995 telenovelas 1995 Brazilian television series debuts 2020 Brazilian television series endings Portuguese-language telenovelas