At the age of 16, Larissa de Macedo Machado started posting videos on the internet singing and dancing and, thus, was discovered by producer Batutinha, in 2010. Soon after, the artist debuted to the public at “Furacão 2000” and released her first single, Eu Vou Ficar. With this song, Anitta won the “Revelação do Funk” (funk revelation) award, reaching her first fans and starting what would later become one of the biggest careers in the Latino and American markets.
It was in 2013, however, that the songwriter began to take her first steps toward great success. After the recording of the video for Meiga e Abusada, in Las Vegas, the production caught the attention of the label Warner Music, with whom she signed at the time. At that moment, MC Anitta gave space to Anitta, a more pop version of her career, thus giving birth to Show das Poderosas.
The hit was a huge success in Brazil, took over the top of the best sellers on iTunes and made the songwriter reach her national career.
Parallel to the launch of the poderosa (powerful), Anitta released, in 2014, the album Ritmo Perfeito, which adds other hits such as Na Batida and Cobertor, in partnership with Projota, making her pop era even clearer. In the next few years, she continued to surprise with her songs and took over the repertoire of Brazilians. With the new album, Bang, and partnerships like Loka, with Simone and Simaria, Anitta showed that she was on the right journey to an inspiring career.
BECOMING INTERNATIONAL
At the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, in 2016, Anitta sang alongside Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil at the opening ceremony of the games, being seen, therefore, by everyone who followed the event around the world. The following year, the singer released her first international hit, the song Switch, in English and in partnership with Iggy Azalea, and Paradinha, a single in Spanish, with the Latin market being her target audience. About the latter, the singer claims that “[…] A song that everyone thought would not work opened the doors of the international market for me”.
In this way, the former MC caught the attention of many brands that started to sponsor her music videos. In 2017, with the help of C&A, for example, she released Is That For Me, Downtown, Will I See You, and Vai Malandra, which featured MC Zaac, Tropkillaz, and rapper Maejor. Vai Malandra´s clip, recorded in Morro do Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro, exalted Brazilian culture and showed the reality of women behind social networks. Anitta appears throughout the clip with cellulite, bringing her feminist position to the plot, a fact that won the admiration of many.
On the other hand, in this scenario of her career, she reports in an interview for TvFoco, that she remembers the moment when she blew up with Show das Poderosas because she was living abroad exactly what she experienced at the beginning of her career in Brazil: having to deal with barriers, people criticizing and all other difficulties.
In 2018, the businesswoman continued to invest in songs in the foreign language without letting criticism discourage her. In partnership with J Balvin, she released Machika and, in March of the same year, the Spanish track Indecente, with the clip being recorded during her birthday party and broadcast live on Youtube, in addition to Medicina, which was recorded in several parts of the world.
With a lot of love for what she does, Anitta premiered, on April 3, her second program on the Multishow channel, Anitta Entrou no Grupo, and continued with partnerships such as Wesley Safadão, in Romance com Safadeza, and Ao Vivo e a Cores with Matheus and Kauan.
In the same year, she was a special mentor for the seventh season of The Voice Brazil and a judge for the seventh season of La Voz México. In addition, she released the children’s cartoon, on the Gloob channel, Clube da Anittinha, based on the artist’s family and friends.
Also in November, she released her EP entitled Solo, with tracks sung in different languages throughout the album. The singer sings songs like Veneno, Goals, with production by Pharrell Williams, and Não Perco Meu Tempo. Simultaneously, she released her documentary series Vai Anitta, on Netflix, showing the backstage of her life and, in 2020, the second season, Anitta: Made In Honório.
The year 2019 was extremely important for Anitta’s career and surrounded by important partnerships: Terremoto with Kevinho, Bola Rebola with Tropkillaz, J Balvin, and MC Zaac, Favela Chegou with Ludmilla, Faz Gostoso with the great name of pop Madonna, Contatinho with Léo Santana and Explosion with Black Eyed Peas are some examples.
In April, her first audiovisual album Kisses was born, with musics in Spanish, English and Portuguese. It features the participation of lots of artists such as Becky G on the track Banana, DJ Alesso on the song Get To Know Me, and rapper Swae Lee on Poquito, Ludmilla and Snoop Dogg on Onda Diferente and Caetano Veloso on the track Você Mentiu.
In October of the same year, she participated for the first time as an attraction on the main stage of the festival, Rock In Rio, and, after that, she announced the Brasileirinha project, which featured songs only in Portuguese. The singles Some Que Ele Vem Atrás, with Marília Mendonça, Combatchy, in partnership with singers Lexa, Luísa Sonza and MC Rebecca, Meu Mel, with the trio Melim and Até o Céu, with MC Cabelinho, were released by her.
In the year 2020, much was said about the singer releasing an entire album focused on her international career. It was then that she actually released it entirely in English and Spanish. In August, the artist participated in what became one of the most listened to tracks of the year in Italy, the track Paloma by Italian Fred De Palma. In November, the beginning of her new era was given with the release of the track Me Gusta with rappers Cardi B and Myke Towers and, on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, she confirmed that her next album would be called Girl From Rio. The title track, which had the music video with scenes recorded at Piscinão de Ramos, was released in April 2021 and became a hit on North American radio, reaching the top 40 of most played songs. Then, as the project’s third single, Faking Love was released, featuring rapper Saweetie.
Envolver, which today can be considered the most successful track of Anitta’s career, was released as the fourth single in November 2021. Recently, on her social media, the singer revealed that she had to fight to release it as a solo since the label wanted a partnership on the single. The dance, which went viral on TikTok and was responsible for the song reaching Spotify’s Top 1 Global, was also Anitta’s own idea. The great success of the track led to the release of a remix version with reggaeton singer Justin Quiles, in addition to being presented at the Lo Nuestro 2022 award, on February 24 this year.
Boys Don’t Cry, released in January 2022, is the fifth track on the album and one of the most different songs from the former MC’s career, presenting a style pulled towards pop-rock. The music video has several references to movies that are special to the artist such as Titanic, Harry Potter, and The Ghosts Have Fun (Beetlejuice). Furthermore, later this year, the singer will participate in Lollapalooza Paris and Rock In Rio Lisboa.
COACHELLA
On April 15 Anitta also performed at the biggest pop music festival in the world, the Coachella in California. With the colors of Brazil in her costume, Anitta sang in a setting that looked like the favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
She opened the concert with the introduction of Mais Que Nada, by Jorge Ben Jor, followed by the hit Onda Diferente, a partnership with Snoop Dog and Ludmilla. Besides the rapper, the singer Saweetie was on the stage to sing Faking Love and DJ Diplo participated in a few funk medleys with Anitta.
In the performance, she also included the music Na Sua Cara, recorded with the participation of Major Lazer and Pablo Vittar, besides making a cover of “Garota de Ipanema” by Tom Jobin, merging it with her own hit Girl From Rio that has the same melody. She also presented successes such as Boys Don’t Cry from her last album, Vai Malandra a success from 2017, Envolver that took her to the top 1 in the global Spotify rank, and, of course, the famous Movimento da Sanfoninha.
Her set was praised by both international and national midia. Billboard, for instance, commented that Anitta kept her essence and roots, in addition to highlighting the brazilian culture. Following the same praise, New York Times commented the fact that the singer is aiming for new publics, while keeping her roots.
In her documentary Anitta em Honório, the singer says “ I didn’t want to be one more when I started singing” and today we can see that she really was able to revolutionize the music industry without ceasing to exalt the power of a brazilian woman.
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The article above was written by Daniela Damasceno edited by Marina Fornazieri.
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