Twenty-five years ago, the actor and singer Seu Jorge began a determined rise from the slums of Rio de Janeiro. The band he formed with a group of friends, Farofa Carioca, released an important album, “Moro no Brasil” (“I Live in Brazil”), a danceable yet probing portrait of life amid Rio’s crime, racism and poverty. Seu Jorge was the group’s obvious standout — he sang samba, reggae, funk and soul with swing, and rapped with theatrical expressiveness.

One of his biggest fans was Rogê, an aspiring samba-funk singer-songwriter from well-to-do Arpoador, a neighborhood that borders Ipanema. Having haunted Farofa Carioca’s shows, Rogê was stunned when Seu Jorge, who he’d never met, showed up at one of his gigs. “He stood right in front of the stage,” he recalled in a recent interview, “gave me his hand, and said, ‘Hi, Rogê, how are you?’”

For all their differences, the friendship still thrives. Now 49, Seu Jorge (born Jorge Mário da Silva; he has said his stage name means Your Jorge) is an international film and pop star — he’s best known to United States audiences for his onscreen work in the 2002 movie “City of God” as well as in Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” for which he performed David Bowie songs in Portuguese. His hits are feel-good dance tunes, but he has the brooding presence and mournful, bloodshot eyes of a man who has seen too much. The 44-year-old Rogê (born Roger José Cury) is known almost exclusively in Lapa, Rio’s downtown night life hub. At Carioca da Gema, the club where he reigned for a decade, his high-octane samba singing and bright spirits kept crowds dancing for hours.

“He’s a special person to me,” Seu Jorge said in Portuguese last week. “He’s a composer I saw grow.”