The Brazilian superstar has legions of fans and seemingly no filter. She's already topped charts and swayed elections—and she's just getting started.
Anitta, the most globally influential Brazilian pop star since Astrud Gilberto sang “The Girl From Ipanema,” is shrewdly aware of this. (Her own nod to Gilberto’s classic, “Girl From Rio,” went viral on TikTok.)
At 30, Anitta has been cultivating her persona and her career for more than a decade, singing in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. (She also speaks Italian and French.)
Her fifth album, Versions of Me, was released last year and spawned a handful of hits spanning pop, reggaeton, hip-hop, and funk carioca.
Madame Tussauds crafted a wax figure of her likeness, wearing a sparkly thong and crop top reading “Garota do Rio” (Girl From Rio), for its museum in New York. Its facial contours are precise enough that it did not become a meme—the ultimate respect.
Anitta embodies a new kind of global pop star—one whose geographic specificity is not an impediment but part of her appeal. In the U.S., this means that the Anglo pop mainstream has finally, belatedly embraced music in languages that aren’t English.
Anitta is audacious and feminist, carefree and the life of the party.