Image Credit: Getty Images for MTV
Anitta could make history – again! The 31-year-old Rio de Janeiro native became the first Brazilian performer to win an MTV Video Music Award in 2022, taking Best Latin for her track, “Envolver.” Now, she is taking the VMAs stage again at New York’s UBS Arena on September 11.
While Anitta isn’t all that new — her 64 million Instagram followers prove that she didn’t pop up overnight — there are still those who aren’t familiar with this Brazilian superstar. As fans tune in to watch this year’s VMAs, we’ve got a breakdown of Anitta’s rise to stardom, here.
Anitta Is A Brazilian Singer
Born Larissa de Macedo Machado on March 30, 1993, the woman known as Anitta first gained commercial success with 2012’s “Meiga e Abusada.” She signed a recording contract with Warner Music Brazil in 2013, the same year she released her self-titled debut album. She released the follow-up, Ritmo Perfeito, in 2014 and her third studio album, Bang, in 2015. While those first three ventures were commercially successful, she gained critical acclaim with Kisses, her trilingual fourth studio album. “Envolver” comes from her fifth studio album, Versions of Me, which arrived in 20222.
“I will always need to carry my culture,” she told Billboard in 2022. “I could never just go to another market and do whatever. What would be the purpose: Fame? Money? I already had that, and that’s not the point for me.”
Anitta attending her evoluSHEIN launch party in New York (Madison McGaw/BFA.com)
She Took a Risk By Going International
“Being an international artist is not only about being famous wherever you go, because the world is so big,” Anitta told Billboard. “It’s about being able to impact culturally different areas at the same time.” In 2022, the Brazilian music market was the 11th largest in the world. However, with Portuguese being the primary language spoken there, it’s hard for artists to have crossover appeal in Spanish-speaking Latin countries. She told Billboard what her brother, Renan (with whom she co-manages her career with), that she wanted to try to have a career beyond Brazil’s borders.
“[He said] ‘Why? You will need to start from the bottom and do the s**t you were doing six years ago. You don’t even have the energy anymore.’ And I told him that’s what I wanted, although I was really scared,” she told Billboard. “It meant I would abandon everything I had done. I knew that if I failed, everyone in my country would laugh at me. That’s what happens to everyone who tries and fails. I didn’t want to become a joke. I wanted it to happen for real.”
However, the gamble paid off. Versions of Me is a success, and she’s collaborated with some major stars like Becky G, Prince Royce, Diplo, Saweetie, and Snoop Dogg.
Anitta Would Have Been a Psychologist
During a 2017 interview with Trip magazine, Anitta said that she would have pursued a career as a psychologist if she wasn’t in the music industry.
There’s A Difference Between Anitta and Larissa
“It’s crazy because as an artist — maybe because we don’t want to feel insecure — my character is very powerful, this girl that does everything,” she told J Balvin in a 2022 conversation for Interview magazine. “But most times I’m very worried about everyone, caring about everyone, thinking about my family and making sure everyone is good. I’m very private, so I don’t let anyone know about that— it’s kind of a secret. But I’m actually very much the opposite of this powerful, invincible person that I sell as an artist.”
“Whenever I suffered any damage as a teenager, I created this character inside of me that no one could ever play withm” she added. “She was tough, but I was very insecure. It’s part of me, this side that’s very confident—and I like that. But there’s this other side that’s the opposite, and it helps my career because then I don’t forget about where I come from. What keeps me going with this character, with this whole industry, is that I care so much about everything. I’m a very political person, and I use this character and industry to make the changes I want to see in the world.”
She’s Openly Bisexual
“I like to change things,” Anitta told Dazed in 2019 “My thing isn’t only to make music for people to have fun and dance to. I like to make people discuss things and think different. I have a huge LGBT audience, and I’m bisexual – but when you see me, if I don’t tell you I’m bisexual, I don’t have the physical representation of the LGBT (community). It’s different when you’re a drag queen. They’re not treated seriously, or like they’re talented people. So when I invited [drag queen Pabllo Vittar on her “Sua Cara” song], the idea was to educate people without them feeling like they were being educated. It was super indirect. I invited her to show people: she sings well as f**k – better than me, actually – she dances, she’s super-cool, she’s beautiful, and she’s a drag queen, and she deserves respect.”
