{"id":500157,"date":"2022-07-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/numero.com\/non-classifiee-2\/interview-with-pop-superstar-anitta-some-people-in-brazil-are-waiting-for-me-because-i-say-what-i-think\/"},"modified":"2024-06-20T17:48:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T15:48:54","slug":"interview-with-pop-superstar-anitta-some-people-in-brazil-are-waiting-for-me-because-i-say-what-i-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/numero.com\/en\/culture-en\/interview-with-pop-superstar-anitta-some-people-in-brazil-are-waiting-for-me-because-i-say-what-i-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with pop superstar Anitta : “Some people in Brazil are waiting for me because I say what I think.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In her videos (of which there are over 60) and on stage, <\/strong>she likes to show off her heavenly curves in a tiny Bikini and twerk lasciviously, whether in the snow at Aspen or bang in the middle of a favela. But Anitta, the singer from Rio de Janeiro, isn\u2019t just any Latina sex bomb, since she puts her enormous fame to political use. Just this April, the \u201cBrazilian Beyonc\u00e9,\u201d as she is known, blocked president Jair Bolsonaro on Twitter after he made ironic comments about the scanty Brazilian-flag outfit she wore at California\u2019s Coachella Festival. In an election year, she afterwards explained, \u201cthe opposition strategy must be to cite his name as little as possible,\u201d <\/em>prompting her to shut down any further interaction with his account.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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One of the most influential stars in Brazil, Anitta has 62 million followers on Instagram, <\/strong>19 million on TikTok and is viewed literally billions of times with every new video release. Her latest album, the lively and ambitious Versions of Me<\/i>, which mixes power pop, funk and reggae- ton in three languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish), has smashed all the sales records in Brazil, and her fame has spread out-side her homeland. Anitta has collaborated with international artists such as Madonna, Cardi B, Snoop Dogg, Miley Cyrus, Maluma, J Balvin, DJ Snake, Nile Rodgers and Caetano Veloso, and even the footballer Neymar has succumbed to her charms, as evidenced by lascivious videos of the couple that made the rounds on social media in 2020.<\/p>\r\n\n

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Anitta\u2019s fans would like the singer \u2013 who has given lectures at Harvard and MIT about her inspiring career trajectory \u2013 to stand for president in Brazil,<\/strong> but as she\u2019s only 29 she\u2019ll have to wait a bit, since the minimum age for the country\u2019s high- est office is set at 35. As a career change, it\u2019s not so absurd, since Anitta is very militant with respect to issues that are important to her. Openly bisexual and vegan, she has showed her support for Black Lives Matter (her father is Black and her mother white) and is concerned about climate change, stances that stand out in a country where anti- LGBT+ rhetoric and police brutality cause enormous damage, and where the president is a confirmed climate sceptic. Conscious of her role, Anitta, who is in many ways a national treasure in her homeland, is determined to shake things up. As she explained to Num\u00e9ro <\/i>over Zoom earlier this year (for the interview, she was glamorously coiffed and sported a monogrammed Louis Vuitton polo shirt), \u201csome people in Brazil are waiting for me, because I say what I think. When you have a lot of visibility, people listen to you. To me it seemed important to use my fame to start a discussion on key subjects. If I see that my country is behaving badly, which is the case right now with our president, the least I can do is to get involved in the debate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\r\n\n

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Top and gloves, GIVENCHY. Skirt and boots, JIL SANDER BY LUCIE AND LUKE MEIER.<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n

Her latest combat is to change the image of the Brazilian woman, <\/strong>as evidenced by the rather R\u2019n\u2019B Girl from Rio <\/i>on her album Versions of Me<\/i>. \u201cYou hear a sample from Ant\u00f4nio Carlos Jobim\u2019s classic The Girl from Ipanema. But I wanted to show my own idea of what constitutes the DNA of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro. With this track, I talk about my culture, my life and how I see women from Rio, which is far from the clich\u00e9d tourist idea of sexy girls that everyone thinks of. There aren\u2019t just girls who look like top models here. I wanted to focus on the energy that animates this country. We feel good in our bodies whatever our vital statistics are. When the single came out, I posted several photos of \u2018girls from Rio\u2019 on Instagram, all of them very different and beautiful in their own way \u2013 among them there were actresses, a new-wave singer, a member of parliament and also a sociologist.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\r\n\n

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Top and gloves, GIVENCHY. Skirt and boots, JIL SANDER BY LUCIE AND LUKE MEIER.<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n \n
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Anitta\u2019s penchant for celebrating others, whatever their walk of life, can perhaps be explained by her attachment to her own roots.<\/strong> For this superstar is a self-made-woman who got there the hard way. Larissa de Macedo Machado, as she was born, in 1993 in Rio, grew up in the low-income neighbourhood of Hon\u00f3rio Gurgel. \u201cMy street isn\u2019t considered part of a favela, but the street next to it is,\u201d she explains. Brought up by a lower-middle-class single mother, little Larissa knew very early on what she wanted to do in life. \u201cAs a child, I was constantly telling my family that one day I would become a very famous singer,\u201d<\/em> she recalls. \u201cThey were always worried that I would be really frustrated if it didn\u2019t work out for me. Nobody wanted to disappoint me by explain- ing that it was impossible, but I could feel their anxiety. They\u2019ve always supported me though, and my brother even works for me today.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\r\n\n

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