1. Ellen Oleria
Born and raised in Brasilia, Brazil´s Capital, Ellen Oléria is a singer, songwriter, actress, wife, and mom. She has a stunning voice and owns the stage like no one else.
Between you and me, for the first time I listened to her singing Zumbi´ song at The Voice Brazil, I got goosebumps. After the performance, all four coaches turned their chairs. Needless to say, she won the first season of the competition.
Celebration 16 years of career, Ellen has released 05 albums and collected important music festival awards. At the latest album Afrofuturista, she mixes divinely samba, forró, carimbó, afoxé, maracatu, among other Brazilian roots rhythms to a more contemporary sound, fusing electronic and hip-hop. All her discography is freely available at Sound Cloud.
2. Potyguara Bardo
She´s a Drag Queen played by José Aquilino: an actor, singer, makeup artist, audiovisual director, from Natal, Brazilian Northeast, where the inspiration for the character ´s name came from. It´s an ancestral reference. Potiguara is a native community that used to live among Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, and Ceará´s territory. The name means “shrimp-eater” in Tupi, the indigenous language.
The character creation started as a process of self-discovering and getting out of a depression, after having a psychedelic experience during high-school. Potyguara produces amazing existential lyrics, recording her first album Simulacre in 2018 as a result of a Dosol Incubator.
The album´s name comes from the Simulacra Theory by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, discussing the relation about what is real or imagination from the social´symbols. Simulacre mixes house music, reggae, and some Brazilian rhythms as lambada, for example. It´s available on Deezer, Spotify, YouTube, Google Play Music
3. Karol Conka
Born and raised in Curitiba, South Brazil. She´s a rapper, songwriter, and TV host. Karol is bisexual and sapiosexual, a person who gets turned on by the intellectual aspect. She advocates for female empowerment, self-esteem, and talks openly about sexuality, demystifying the old school idea that women who talk about it are vulgar. Conka uses strong arguments, words of impact, and acid sentences to stand her believes. Her polemic single Lalá is about female oral sex, a very educational song that brings to light the prejudice and ignorance about female desires and needs.
4. Liniker e os Caramelows
Born and raised in Araraquara, the countryside of São Paulo, Southeast Brazil. Liniker is a trans singer and songwriter. Her songs have black music and samba-rock influence, carrying an amazing groove that melts into our soul in a such unique way. In 2015, she met the Caramelows recording their first album “Remonta” available at Deezer and Itunes. Go to heaven listening to them!
5. Maria Gadú
Born in Sao Paulo, Maria Gadu is a singer, songwriter, musician. Like many other singers, she started her career playing at pubs. Maria Gadu released her first album in 2009 acclaimed by audiences and critics. She has collected some important awards and a Latin Grammy Award-nominee.
This talented artist has studied anthropology, sociology, and Brazilian genuine history. After the release of “Guelã ao Vivo”, she intensified the research and activism for Natives causes, LGBTQIA+ rights, feminism, and antiracism becoming a reference in Brazil on the fight for gender, race and ethnicity equality.
Her latest single “Mundo Líquido” released on April 22nd, 2019 – the anniversary of the Portuguese invasion – an act against the idea that Brazil was discovered, when in fact there were thousands of natives already living in the territory.
The song and video clip were recorded at the Rio Negro, a river at the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, including the fluid sounds of nature and the Guajajara´s Tribe songs. Guajajaras is one of the biggest native communities in Brazil. They live on the eastern margin of the Amazon, located in Maranhão state.
Maria Gadu invites all of us for a beautiful journey back to the origin, rediscovering of sounds, colors, and symbols that are the source of Brazil.
6. Ney Matogrosso
Born in Bela Vista, the countryside of Mato Grosso do Sul State, Ney is a singer and music producer. He started his artistic as an actor. Only around the ’30s, he began to sing at the “Secos e Molhados” band. Their first album sold more than 1 million copies. Since 1975, Ney goes solo, recording more than 28 albums. Turning 78 years old this year, this countertenor has an unbelievable vocal range, an elegant and super sexy performing at the stage.
7. Cazuza
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Cazuza was a singer, songwriter, and mostly, a poet. He is still an icon in Brazilian rock music. Polemic, irreverent, full of attitude, he loved shocking his audience. Begun writing poems around 65´s and left college in 1978, Cazuza started acting in a theater group in 1980, when he joined the Barão Vermelho band playing as a vocalist, which was a huge success. Later in 1985, Cazuza got infected by the SIDA virus and started his solo career. This great Brazilian poet died at the age of 32 years old, leaving great songs and inspiring the new generations through his masterpieces
8. Renato Russo
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Renato was a singer, songwriter. He was the vocalist of Legião Urbana a rock band. Spending his teenage life in Brasília, he started writing lyrics while he was sick on a bed. In 1979, he formed his first band “Aborto Elétrico”. In 1982, Legião Urbana Band came out, going solo in 1993 when recorded The Stonewall Celebration Concert album, donating part of the royalties to a NOG. In 1996, Renato died as a victim of HIV. He will always be alive in the hearts of the 80s generation.
9. Lulu Santos
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Lulu is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Starting playing when he was 12 years old in a Beatles cover band, turning pro around 19´s, recording more than 28 albums among his career, mostly singing lovesongs with beautiful and smart lyrics, this year he is celebrating 67´s releasing the album “Pra Sempre” fully dedicated to his husband. Enjoy Lulu´s new album available at Deezer, Spotify, Google Play, Itunes.
