Anitta Turns 30: her life from the favelas in Rio to the Grammys

If you still don’t know who Anitta is, you must be living under a rock. The Brazilian singer, who has taken over the world thanks to her songs in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, is turning 30 years old today and we are celebrating by taking a minute to run through her remarkable life and career.

Who is Anitta?

Larissa de Macedo Machado was born on March 30th, 1993, in Honório Gurgel favela, a region with one of the lowest rankings on the Human Development Index, in the city of Río de Janeiro. Larissa had a poor childhood and was raised by her mother after being granted custody following a divorce.

She began singing in the Santa Luzia parish choir in her neighborhood when she was just 8 years old after her grandparents discovered her talent for singing. Later, she started having dance lessons. In school, she was a bright, intelligent student, demonstrating above-average abilities and learning English by age 11. She then finished a technical course in public administration after graduating from one of the most prestigious public schools in the country.

In addition to her native language, Portuguese, she speaks English and Spanish fluently. She also has an advanced level of Italian and an intermediate level of French, has taken Japanese classes, and plans to learn Korean.

As a teenager, she posted YouTube videos of herself performing using a bottle of deodorant as a microphone. When she was 17, she won the Revelation of Music award and got a contract with a Brazilian record company. She then decided to pursue her passion and follow an artistic career. She created her stage name Anitta, inspired by the character Anita, from the book Presença de Anita, which was adapted as a television series by Rede Globo in 2001. She thought the character “amazing” because “[she] could be sexy without looking vulgar; girl and woman at the same time.”

How did Anitta get famous?

After meeting a famous music producer in Brazil and signing with Warner Music, Anitta started releasing her first songs, which would soon become national hits. The song “Show das Poderosas” received considerable attention from the media in May 2013, becoming the most-watched music video on YouTube in Brazil, surpassing 160 million views in less than a week after its release.

She later released her self-titled debut album, which included her hit “Meiga e Abusada.” The success of that album earned her an invitation to perform alongside fellow Brazilians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics and won her the award for Best Latin American Artist at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

In the next few years, Anitta went on to release two more studio albums that established her as one of the biggest names in Brazilian pop. However, it wasn’t until 2016 through 2018, when she embarked on numerous collaborations with international artists such as Nile Rodgers, Maluma, Iggy Azalea, Major Lazer, Alesso, and J Balvin, among others, that made her success global.

In 2017, she released her first song in Spanish, “Paradinha,” which catapulted her fame to the rest of the Latin market and introduced her to reggaetón. However, it was her collaboration with Colombian singer J Balvin on the song “Downtown” that ultimately cemented her name as a Latina artist. The hit “Sua Cara” with Major Lazer and Pabllo Vittar also became a global hit.

In 2019, she collaborated with several international artists such as Madonna, Sofía Reyes, Rita Ora, Luis Fonsi, Ozuna, and The Black Eyed Peas. She later received critical acclaim for her trilingual fourth studio visual album, Kisses, which earned her a nomination for the Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Music Album.

If that wasn’t enough, Anitta went on to release more songs with Cardi B, Myke Towers, Maluma, Wisin, Lunay, Saweetie, Tini, Becky G, Pharrell, Nicky Jam, and Missy Elliot, just to name a few.

Her Spanish language single “Envolver,” from her fifth studio album Versions of Me (2022), topped the Global Top 50 chart on Spotify, making Anitta the first Brazilian and Latin American artist with a solo song to do so. Anitta also ranked first on Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart and second on Billboard Global, being the first Brazilian artist to lead a global music chart. 

Facts and latest news about Anitta

The singer-songwriter identifies as vegan and bisexual, and is a vocal advocate for the LGBT!Q+ community.

“I like to make people discuss things and think differently. I have a huge LGBTQ 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. The idea was to educate people without them feeling like they were being educated. It was super indirect,” she said in a 2019 interview with Dazed.

Although she has been criticized for not taking a stance against former president Jair Bolsonaro, she has demonstrated against racial inequality and deforestation in Brazil, and spoke out against an amendment that would have worsened the way artists perceived copyright fees.

During her career, she has embraced diversity, her Latina roots, and her sexuality without any fear, like the video of her hit “Girl from Rio,” where she celebrates people of all sizes, shapes, and colors. She is also very open about her love of plastic surgery, as seen on the cover of the album Versions of Me, which displays an array of ever-changing headshots.

Anitta was also recently nominated as “Best New Artist” at the 2023 Grammy Awards and confirmed as part of the cast of the seventh season of the popular Spanish Netflix series, Élite. She also made everyone dance in the Rio de Janeiro carnivals by performing some of her biggest hits and bringing her roots to her hometown, and performed at the third annual Rihanna’s Fenty X Savage show.