Paulo Alexandre (pseudonym of Modesto Pereira da Silva Santos), born in Vouzela on February 16, 1931, began his artistic career in 1954, on the now defunct National Broadcaster, on the program “Listening to the Stars” alongside names such as Luis Piçarra, Maria de Lurdes Resende and Rui de Mascarenhas.
In 1958 he joined three soloists from the national broadcaster – Nuno d’Almeida, Américo Lima and Fernando La Rua – to form the vocal ensemble 4 de Espadas. He records an EP with the João Nobre Orchestra. With Telestars he released an EP that included songs such as “Dancemos O Twist” and “Horizonte de Esperança”.
The first two songs are performed by Paulo Alexandre accompanied by Telstars and the remaining two are instrumentals by Telstars themselves. In this EP, the Telstars were Luís Pedrosa, Artur Pinto, João Vasco Mora and Carlos Silva Pereira. The Telstars had a short existence between 1962 and 1964, when they were presented as the Portuguese replica of the famous Shadows.
The group’s lead guitarist, Luís Manuel Pedrosa, had the first Fender in Portugal, exactly the same as Hank Marvin’s. The group recorded a single album, in 1963, with the Alvorada label, accompanying Paulo Alexandre. In September of the same year they participated in the Shadows competition held at the Roma cinema in Lisbon.
The idea for the band’s name came from João Vasco Mora, who wanted to pay homage to the first telecommunications satellite launched in 1962. Paulo Alexandre later dedicated himself to popular songs and light music, in a long career whose highest commercial point was the famous song “Vinho Verde”.
