Biography

Larissa de Macedo Machado (born 30 March 1993), known professionally as Anitta, is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, and businesswoman.

She began singing at age 8 in a choir from a Catholic church in the Honório Gurgel neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. At the age of 16 she attended a technical school and was called to work at Vale. In 2010, after posting a video on YouTube, Renato Azevedo, then producer of the independent record company Furacão 2000, called her to sign a contract with the label. Due to the success of the song "Meiga e Abusada" in 2012, she signed a contract with Warner Music Brasil the following year.

Anitta rose to national fame in 2013 after releasing the single "Show das Poderosas", which reached the top of the Brasil Hot 100 Airplay chart. Its music video has been viewed over 130 million times on YouTube. In July of the same year, she released her debut studio album which received a triple gold record certificate and platinum certification by ABPD. The album hit the mark of 170,000 copies sold, being also released in Portugal. Ritmo Perfeito (2014), her second studio album, sold 45,000 copies after a month of its release. On the same day she released her first live album, Meu Lugar. In November 2014, she performed at the Latin Grammy Award, becoming the youngest Brazilian singer to perform at the awards. In 2015, she released her third studio album entitled Bang, which was certified platinum and produced the singles "Deixa Ele Sofrer", "Bang", "Essa Mina é Louca" and "Cravo e Canela".

In 2013, Anitta was the singer who most remained at the top of iTunes in Brazil and was elected by the same as the Artist of the Year. She was also elected by the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte (APCA) as the revelation of the year in music in 2013. She is a five-time winner as the Best Brazilian Act on the MTV Europe Music Awards, and was the first Brazilian artist to win the Best Latin American Act award.

In 2017, she was chosen by Billboard as the 15th most influential artist in the world in social networks, getting ahead of artists like Lady Gaga, Shakira and Rihanna.

Contents

• 1Early life
• 2Career
  • 2.12012–13: Debut album and initial success
  • 2.22014–15: Meu Lugar and Ritmo Perfeito
  • 2.32015–16: Bang and collaborations
  • 2.42017–present: Checkmate, international success and Kisses
• 3Artistry
  • 3.1Musical style
  • 3.2Voice
  • 3.3Influences
• 4Public image
• 5Personal life
• 6Philanthropy
• 7Discography
• 8Tours
• 9Filmography
  • 9.1Films
  • 9.2Television
• 10Awards and nominations
• 11References
• 12External links

Early life

Anitta was born Larissa de Macedo Machado in Rio de Janeiro, the youngest daughter of Míriam Macedo and Mauro Machado; her brother Renan Machado serves as her artistic producer. Her mother raised the two children by herself.

She began her career at 8 years old singing in the choir of Santa Luzia Church in Rio de Janeiro by the intervention of her maternal grandparents. At 11 years old, with the allowance she got, she decided to take English classes. She later received dance lessons provided by her mother's teacher. At 16, she finished a course in administration at a technical school in Rio de Janeiro. A year later, she decided to pursue an artistic career. That same year, she was the winner of the "Revelation of Music" award.

Anitta's stage name was inspired by the character Anita, from Rede Globo TV series Presença de Anita. She thought the character "amazing" because " could be sexy without looking vulgar, girl and woman at the same times".

Besides her native Portuguese, she also speaks English and Spanish fluently.

Career

2012–13: Debut album and initial success

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Anitta in June 2013

In 2010, Anitta was invited by funk carioca producer Renato Azevedo (known as Batutinha) to perform some tests after he saw one of her videos singing. After being approved, she signed with independent recording label Furacão 2000. That same year she released her first song on radio stations in Rio de Janeiro, the promotional single "Eu Vou Ficar", which was included on the Armagedom DVD, released by Furacão 2000. Advised by her producer, she decided to put another "t" in the stage name. A year later, the song "Fica Só Olhando" was included on the second version of the DVD.

Her first televised appearance was on 16 May 2012 on TV program Cante se Puder, on SBT, where she sang "Exttravasa", a song by Claudia Leitte, inside a beer cup. In June 2012, Kamilla Fialho, after watching a performance on stage by Anitta, offered to be her manager, paying a fine of 256,000 reais required to release the singer from her contract with Furacão 2000, later signing her to Kamilas's company K2L.

In early 2013, she created the "quadradinho" choreography, which was very successful among funk groups. In January 2013, due to the success of the song "Meiga e Abusada" in Rio de Janeiro, Anitta signed a recording contract with Warner Music Group. "Meiga e Abusada" became one of the most requested songs in Brazilian radio stations in early 2013. A music video for the song was recorded in Las Vegas, and directed by American director Blake Farber, who has worked with Beyoncé. Her debut, self-titled debut album was released in June 2013.

The music video for the song "Show das Poderosas" received considerable attention by the media in May 2013, becoming the most watched music video on YouTube in Brazil, surpassing 130 million views. Also helping to music, which remained for weeks at the top of the best selling in iTunes Brazil, and making it the third most played song on the radio in the country in 2013. The song also held the top ten of the music charts in Spain, Portugal and Argentina. At the time, the singer's booking was estimated at 150,000 reais per show, being one of the highest in Brazil.

2014–15: Meu Lugar and Ritmo Perfeito

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Anitta during a concert in February 2015

Sales to the tickets for the recording of her first live album went on sale in November 2013. The event took place in Rio de Janeiro at HSBC Arena on 15 February 2014 and was attended by about 10,000 people. The album was previously titled Fantástico Mundo de Anitta, but was later renamed to Meu Lugar with the release of the song "Quem Sabe" on iTunes. The song "Blá Blá Blá" was released as the lead single from the album on 23 March 2014. It was a success, reaching number two on the Hot 100 Airplay chart in Brazil. The album was released on 4 June 2014, just a day after the release of her second studio album, Ritmo Perfeito.

The second single from the project was a song featuring rapper Projota titled "Cobertor", which reached number 43 on Brazilian charts. The following single "Na Batida" was released in July 2014. Its music video reached 1 million visualizations on YouTube after just 24 hours. It was also a success on charts, peaking at number four on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. Other singles released from the album were "Ritmo Perfeito" and "No Meu Talento", featuring MC Guimê. In April 2014, she made her acting debut as Helena Boccato on comedy film Copa de Elite. In August 2014, she founded her own management company, Rodamoinho Produções Artísticas. In December, she also starred as goddess Solaris on television film Didi e o Segredo dos Anjos.

2015–16: Bang and collaborations

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Anitta, (center) with singers Caetano Veloso (left) and Gilberto Gil (right) performing at the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony

Her third studio album Bang was released in October 2015. It was elected by Billboard Brasil as one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Its album cover art was signed by Giovanni Bianco, the same designer of American singer Madonna. Bang debuted at number three on the Brazilian albums chart with 40,000 copies sold at its first week. The album has sold 300,000 copies as of May 2016, surpassing sales of her debut album, which has sold 170,000 copies. It was also certified Platinum by the Associação Brasileira de Produtores de Discos (ABPD). The first single of the album, "Deixa Ele Sofrer", which was released on 16 July 2015 and reached the top of the iTunes Brazil chart. The song also made Anitta the first Brazilian singer to occupy the top of Spotify Brazil.

The following single, "Bang", was also a success, staying at number one on iTunes and Spotify for several days, and its music video becoming an international viral video and receiving over 320 million views on YouTube. Other singles released from the album were "Essa Mina É Louca" and "Cravo e Canela". In October 2015, the artist won the EMA Worldwide Act Latin America, being the first Brazilian artist to win the award. A collaboration with Jota Quest and Nile Rodgers, entitled "Blecaute", was released in November 2015.

In 2016, Anitta made her debut as a TV hostess on the third season of Multishow program Música Boa Ao Vivo. The singer was also featured on a remix of the song "Ginza", by singer J Balvin. In August 2016, she released a single titled "Sim ou Não" featuring Colombian singer Maluma, and performed at the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony along with singers Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil after the parade of delegations. The next month, she signed a contract with talent agency William Morris Endeavor. In November 2016, she won the Best Brazilian Act category at the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards.

2017–present: Checkmate, international success and Kisses

In January 2017, the singer was featured on singles including "Loka", by female duo Simone & Simaria, and "Você Partiu Meu Coração", by Nego do Borel also featuring Wesley Safadão. In May 2017, "Switch", a collaboration with Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, became her first single in English to be released. The same month, she released a single in both Portuguese and Spanish titled "Paradinha". In June of the same year, the American group Major Lazer released "Sua Cara", along with her and drag queen singer Pabllo Vittar. The song is part of the band's fourth EP, Know No Better. In a matter of a few hours, the audio work exceeded the mark of 5 million views on YouTube. After its release, the song became an international hit, appearing as one hundred most played in Global Spotify, and spent more than five weeks on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Songs chart, making it the only Portuguese-language song in the United States. The music video was also a hit, reaching more than 17 million views in one day.

On 3 September, Anitta released her first English-language single "Will I See You", a collaboration with Grammy award-winning producer and songwriter Poo Bear. It was the first song of the singer's project entitled CheckMate, in which she would release a new song a month. On 13 October, in partnership with Swedish DJ Alesso, Anitta released the second song from CheckMate, titled "Is That For Me". On 19 November, the singer released, in her second collaboration with J Balvin, another track from the CheckMate project, "Downtown". The composition became an international success, entering in the "Top 50 Global", list of the 50 most executed songs in the world, making Anitta the first Brazilian to appear in the ranking. On 18 December 2017, Anitta released a new single, "Vai Malandra", featuring MC Zaac, Maejor, Tropkillaz and DJ Yuri Martins; this was the fourth and last song from the CheckMate project.

In January 2018, another collaboration with J Balvin, "Machika", was released. Two months later, she released another single in Spanish, titled "Indecente". In April, she debuted her new TV show on Multishow titled Anitta Entrou no Grupo. In June, she performed at Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon for a sold-out crowd of 80,000 attendees, and was acclaimed by British magazine NME. She also made concerts in Paris and London as part of the Made in Brazil tour. The same month, she released a single titled "Medicina". In September, she was featured on a single by production duo Seakret, "Perdendo a Mão", featuring Jojo Maronttinni. Later that same month, she debuted as one of the coaches on La Voz... México. The next month, she was featured on Colombian singer Greeicy Rendón's single "Jacuzzi". In November, Anitta released a multilingual extended play (EP) titled Solo, and was the subject of a Shots Studios-produced docu-series titled Vai Anitta, which aired on Netflix. In January 2019, she released a single with Brazilian singer Kevinho titled "Terremoto", whose music video is based on "I'm Still in Love with You" by Sean Paul.

In February, she later released a single similar to "Vai Malandra" titled "Bola Rebola" alongside Colombian artist J Balvin, Tropkillaz and Mc Zaac.

She was featured on the song "R.I.P." by Mexican singer Sofía Reyes alongside British singer Rita Ora. Her fourth studio album, titled Kisses, was released on April 5. She also features on Madonna's cover of the song "Faz Gostoso" from her album Madame X.

Artistry

Musical style

Anitta's music is generally pop, but she also incorporates R&B, dance-pop, electropop, electronic dance music, reggae, reggaeton, funk carioca, samba-reggae, latin pop, and bossa nova.

Voice

Anitta has a slight soprano voice, whose vocal extension covers 2 octaves, with homogeneous vocals. The celebrity website Vocal Pop detailed that her voice appears to be a 15-year-old girl and she has a "very sharp and light voice" and added that she has "no such master of her own voice and falls short in many gaps as a singer and an interpreter". Forbes' Anderson Antunes indicated that the singer uses R&B on her songs, which is also used by Rihanna and Kesha, and she could be the next "global superstar", as Shakira, who follows the "world music appeal". In a review for her self-titled album Anitta, Braulio Lorentz of G1 described her voice as being tweaked and sweet, and her songs have "lyrics about women's power, seductive power and other predicates of whoever claims to "have power".

Influences

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Singers such as Mariah Carey and Beyoncé have influenced Anitta.

Anitta cites as her greatest influences the singers Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Rihanna. In 2013, the singer revealed that she dreamed of doing duets with Carey and Ivete Sangalo, and on the latter she emphasized: "If she accepts an invitation from these I think I'd die right at the time of the duet of so much emotion and then it will never come out". During the first album, Anitta was compared to the singer Beyoncé, saying that the artist was one of her influences, although she was deeply acquainted with her work a short time ago. "It's a new admiration for me, I was not a fan since I was little like Mariah, but today I really admire her. Since I started to sing I really started to enjoy her".

Another influence was also Sandy, with whom Anitta sang together on 27 July 2013, during Altas Horas, a television show, singing the tracks "As Quatro Estações" and "Desperdiçou". In the program Anitta commented: "I can sing all the songs, I have followed her since always. I took the CDs borrowed from my friends to listen". During the production of her second album, Anitta quoted Katy Perry as influencing the new tracks. Other references cited by the singer also include the group Pussycat Dolls, and such singers as Madonna, Britney Spears, Kate Nash and Colbie Caillat. Among Brazilian pop artists, she was influenced by girl group Rouge. During an interview for the G1, Anitta mentioned the MPB singers Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso for always being renewed and risking themselves in other styles.

Public image

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Anitta in the Coca-Cola Jeans parade in November 2014.

Soon after reaching stardom, Anitta was described as a sex symbol by the media. In 2015, she was voted the sexiest woman by VIP magazine. Writing to Folha de S. Paulo, Gustavo Fioratti said that the singer's "sexy, vulgar-style personality" is more impressive in her music videos than in her live performances. The Daily Mail called it "bombshell". She believes that by working "with the sensuality thing", her artwork is not taken seriously by a part of the critics and the public. The singer expressed her frustration by saying, " people think you have no talent, no intelligence. I can be intelligent and have the will to be sensual."

In 2014, Anitta was accused of adopting an "anti-feminist speech" during a participation in the Globo network's Altas Horas show, claiming that "women fought so hard to have the same rights as men, who, when they succeeded, wanted to take care the situation and the place of men". Subsequently, she began to adopt a position more in line with the ideals of feminism and also began to consider herself a feminist. When she was elected "Woman of the Year" by the Brazilian edition of GQ magazine in 2017, she made a "feminist speech" and said:

"I'm going to keep fighting with my music, talking about shallow things, dancing, wearing short clothes, saying what I say and what I do... so people understand that it's not a short outfit, it's the fact that you kiss how many people you want to kiss one night, who will tell you whether you're smart, whether you're capable, whether you have talent, whether you can sing, do, or fail to do."

The singer was listed by Vogue magazine as one of the 100 most influential and creative people in the world. Anitta was chosen for the ranking because of her "positivity engagement around the body illustrated by the affirmative choice to display her untold image in the "Vai Malandra" music video. Dom Phillips of The Guardian, said that the music video of "Vai Malandra" "sparked a ferocious debate in Brazil, exposing the country's social lines of failure, dealing with issues of inequality, racism, sexist abuse and cultural appropriation." the singer was accused of "cultural appropriation" by black activists, for wearing hairbraids in the video, "Anitta uses black when it suits her," wrote Stephanie Ribeiro in a column for Marie Claire. The singer claimed that her paternal family is black. Anitta has a huge LGBTQ and female following. When she refused to publicly disapprove of the candidacy of right-wing conservative Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, she received much criticism from her fans and the media.

Anitta is one of the most influential celebrities in social networks. In June 2017, it appeared in the Social 50 ranking of the North American Billboard like the 15th most influential artist of the world in the social networks, repeating, among other times, its appearance in December, when it was in the tenth position. In March 2018, she won the iHeart Music Awards in the Social Star category.

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Anitta in 2015.

After achieving success, Anitta associated its image with several brands. Often referred to as a "marketing case," Anitta said she feels praised when she is described as such. She explained: "I'm happy when I see people believe that I'm a marketing case because I'm the one who does my marketing. I studied marketing, I graduated in pre-college administration, I had a marketing class, all my marketing I'm the one who plans, I do it, I feel praised when I see people saying that." She also described as" co-branding "her strategy of partnering with foreign artists to lead their work to other markets.

Anitta wore more colorful printed dresses early in her career, with cropped top combinations, short jeans and plaid blouses and caps. After the release of the album Bang (2015), the style of the singer began to make references to pop art. She has already stated that she likes to wear clothes from the brands Moschino and Givenchy. In an interview with EGO.com, she said, "Being stylish is having an attitude, having an uncommon sense of being authentic, having style is having a good mood."

In 2014, the singer claimed to have undergone six plastic surgery procedures, justified by a dissatisfaction with her appearance: "I saw myself a little hurt. I always had a bad nose too. breathe all local air ". By 2016, Anitta had already done two breast surgeries, two rhinoplasty, liposuction, enlargement of the cheekbones, among others. Anitta is considering further procedures in the future. In 2016 the number increased to eight surgical interventions, the most recent being a fill in the lips, totaling more than 100 thousand reais in aesthetic procedures.

Personal life

Anitta dated Mr. Thug, one of the members of the Bonde da Stronda, from early 2011 until the end of 2012. The singer also had a relationship with actor and model Pablo Morais. On November 17, 2017, she married businessman Thiago Magalhães, with whom she had been in contact since May of the same year. The couple officialized the union under total separation of goods. They announced their separation in September 2018. The same month, the singer implied in her profile on Twitter that she is bisexual, after stating that she is "part of the LGBTQ+ community". In January 2019, after watching the documentary Cowspiracy (2014), she became vegan.

In an interview for Trip magazine in 2017, she stated that she is doing therapy and also that if she did not pursue her artistic career, she would "be a happy psychologist".

Philanthropy

In 2014, she made donations to a shelter that received homeless people from the thunderstorm that hit the city of Vila Velha and also performed at a public school for people with Down syndrome in Curitiba.

In 2016, she made donations to people living in the favela of Cidade de Deus, in her hometown of Rio de Janeiro.

Discography

Main article: Anitta discography

• Anitta (2013)
• Ritmo Perfeito (2014)
• Bang (2015)
• Kisses (2019)

Tours

• Turnê Show das Poderosas (2013–14)
• Turnê Meu Lugar (2014–16)
• Bang Tour (2016–17)
• Kisses World Tour (2019)

Filmography

This is a chronologically-ordered list of films and television shows in which Anitta has appeared.