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The Independent
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Anitta writes song and cheers for samba school celebrating her Afro-Brazilian faith
Anitta has become a pop music sensation in her native Brazil and abroad, but Monday she will have her first shot to prove herself on the country's biggest stage: the Sambadrome. This year, the 31-year-old took on the new challenge of joining some of Brazil's most traditional samba artists as a songwriter for a Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro. Anitta is a songwriter for the Unidos da Tijuca samba school, the first to enter the Sambadrome avenue on Monday, the second of three nights of parades. Every samba school must have a song that is repeatedly played for up to 80 minutes to support the theme behind its costumes and floats. Unidos da Tijuca's theme is Logun Edé, the star's orisha — a deity in Afro-Brazilian religions that represents a force of nature. Last year, the singer lost thousands of followers on Instagram after she made a video to pay tribute to the Afro-Brazilian religion she practices, Candomble. Logun Edé is a young warrior respected by elders for promoting knowledge about their culture. Some of the song's lyrics go: 'With intense brightness/ I challenge the consensus/ restless and intense/ I am Logun-Edé.' The artists on Monday night paraded with the Unidos da Tijuca samba school, many of them dressed in the samba school's yellow and blue colors, with costumes representing not only the deity, but also the Borel Hill, a community in Rio's north side where the samba school is based. It is often caught in the crossfire between criminals and police. Samba writer Diego Nicolau, a member of the Unidos da Tijuca songwriting team, said they had several online meetings with Anitta as the star traveled between concerts in New York and Europe. He added the singer set up a small studio in her hotel room to record vocals for the version that won the contest to be the school's 2025 samba. Anitta's own Carnival festivities began Friday in Salvador, where she and other singers led tens of thousands of fans atop behemoth sound trucks, known as electric trios — a Brazilian innovation that amplifies music and effectively does away with front-row seats, to make Carnival more accessible. The next day, she drew about 550,000 people to a street party in the city of Sao Luis in northeastern Brazil. When Unidos da Tijuca entered the Sambadrome, Anitta was leaving an event in metropolis Sao Paulo and published videos of herself in a van, singing and dancing to her own samba. Many of her fans said on social media they were frustrated with the star's absence. 'Where's Anitta?' several of them asked as Unidos da Tijuca started its parade. 'I only wanted to watch this because of her,' another fan of the singer said on the social platform X. The results of Rio's Carnival will be announced Wednesday, with each of the 12 top schools hoping for victory. If Tijuca wins, Anitta will join a small group of top Brazilian music writers who have made it with the demanding fanatics of one of the country's most popular genres. Even if the school merely cracks the top six, Anitta will have another chance to parade with it on Saturday, at the so-called 'Parade of Champions.' Hours earlier, she will host a post-Carnival street party, where more than 100,000 people are expected to turn out. 'These concerts during Carnival, we close the deals long before. I won the Tijuca samba contest in September, but I already had these scheduled concerts. There wasn't much I could do,' Anitta told journalists on Feb. 26. 'We will make history regardless, I am confident.' ___ Sá Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo. ___
Associated Press
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Anitta writes song and cheers for samba school celebrating her Afro-Brazilian faith
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Anitta has become a pop music sensation in her native Brazil and abroad, but Monday she will have her first shot to prove herself on the country's biggest stage: the Sambadrome. This year, the 31-year-old took on the new challenge of joining some of Brazil's most traditional samba artists as a songwriter for a Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro. Anitta is a songwriter for the Unidos da Tijuca samba school, the first to enter the Sambadrome avenue on Monday, the second of three nights of parades. Every samba school must have a song that is repeatedly played for up to 80 minutes to support the theme behind its costumes and floats. Unidos da Tijuca's theme is Logun Edé, the star's orisha — a deity in Afro-Brazilian religions that represents a force of nature. Last year, the singer lost thousands of followers on Instagram after she made a video to pay tribute to the Afro-Brazilian religion she practices, Candomble. Logun Edé is a young warrior respected by elders for promoting knowledge about their culture. Some of the song's lyrics go: 'With intense brightness/ I challenge the consensus/ restless and intense/ I am Logun-Edé.' The artists on Monday night paraded with the Unidos da Tijuca samba school, many of them dressed in the samba school's yellow and blue colors, with costumes representing not only the deity, but also the Borel Hill, a community in Rio's north side where the samba school is based. It is often caught in the crossfire between criminals and police. Samba writer Diego Nicolau, a member of the Unidos da Tijuca songwriting team, said they had several online meetings with Anitta as the star traveled between concerts in New York and Europe. He added the singer set up a small studio in her hotel room to record vocals for the version that won the contest to be the school's 2025 samba. Anitta's own Carnival festivities began Friday in Salvador, where she and other singers led tens of thousands of fans atop behemoth sound trucks, known as electric trios — a Brazilian innovation that amplifies music and effectively does away with front-row seats, to make Carnival more accessible. The next day, she drew about 550,000 people to a street party in the city of Sao Luis in northeastern Brazil. When Unidos da Tijuca entered the Sambadrome, Anitta was leaving an event in metropolis Sao Paulo and published videos of herself in a van, singing and dancing to her own samba. Many of her fans said on social media they were frustrated with the star's absence. 'Where's Anitta?' several of them asked as Unidos da Tijuca started its parade. 'I only wanted to watch this because of her,' another fan of the singer said on the social platform X. The results of Rio's Carnival will be announced Wednesday, with each of the 12 top schools hoping for victory. If Tijuca wins, Anitta will join a small group of top Brazilian music writers who have made it with the demanding fanatics of one of the country's most popular genres. Even if the school merely cracks the top six, Anitta will have another chance to parade with it on Saturday, at the so-called 'Parade of Champions.' Hours earlier, she will host a post-Carnival street party, where more than 100,000 people are expected to turn out. 'These concerts during Carnival, we close the deals long before. I won the Tijuca samba contest in September, but I already had these scheduled concerts. There wasn't much I could do,' Anitta told journalists on Feb. 26. 'We will make history regardless, I am confident.' Sá Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo. ___
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Yahoo
Feted at Carnival, Afro-Brazilian faiths face hate in daily life
In a busy workshop, Leandro Vieira oversees preparations for Rio de Janeiro's dazzling Carnival parade, where his samba school will celebrate the spiritual richness of Candomble, one of the main Afro-Brazilian faiths. Elsewhere, an Umbanda priestess named Mother Fernanda -- the practitioner of another Afro-Brazilian religion -- tearfully assesses damage to her vandalized temple, where sacred items were destroyed and equipment stolen. The perpetrators left a Bible on the ground, alongside the remains of an image of Oxum, the goddess of love. Oxum and other African deities, known as "orixas," will be honored by most of the 12 samba schools competing from Sunday to Tuesday in the famed Carnival parade, with celebrants relaying a story through the use of towering floats, drummers and dancers. Thousands of spectators will cheer on the myths and rituals that emerged with the arrival of five million African slaves trafficked to Brazil -- a reaction far removed from the reality these religions face in daily Brazilian life. The parade is "sold to the world as a mark of Brazilian culture, but (the country) discriminates against religions of African origin," Vieira, the 41-year-old artistic director of the Imperatriz Leopoldinense school, told AFP. This paradox "shows that Brazilian society misunderstands the aesthetic, artistic, social and narrative contribution of black culture." - 'We are being silenced' - "People accept Carnival, Carnival is beautiful, but we suffer a lot of prejudice," said the Umbanda priestess Fernanda Marques Franco dos Anjos, a 42-year-old lawyer. "Our daily reality is this: we are being silenced, destroyed." In Brazil, attacks on religious freedom increased by 81 percent between 2023 and 2024, according to official data, confirming a trend in recent years. Attacks tripled against followers of Umbanda and Candomble, whose faiths are often wrongly associated with witchcraft or Satanic practices. They face insults and mockery, intimidation, physical attacks and property damage, according to the independent Observatory of Religious Freedoms (OLR). In a 2023 report presented to the UN, the observatory documented cases of temples being burned down, priests threatened and faithful adherents who lost their jobs. "You can't (display your faith) on LinkedIn," or "wear a protection necklace" on Instagram, because "that often costs you your job," said Isabella Menezes Antas, 41, the "mother" of the Umbanda Academy temple in downtown Rio that has also suffered attacks. - Intolerance rooted in racism - "Violence has always been practiced against religions of an African origin," said Christina Vital, a professor of Sociology at Fluminense Federal University. "Their artistic and cultural importance is recognized, but this is not enough to overcome the reasons that structure racism and intolerance," Vital added. Maria Eduarda Oliveira, a 24-year-old hairdresser, recalls being called a "macumbera monkey" by a boy at school -- a derogatory term referring to someone who follows Afro-Brazilian rituals. "That shook me, but because I was very educated about (defending) my blackness and my history, I was able to move on," she said on Ipanema beach while making an offering to Iemanja, the goddess of the sea. The stigma even hit Brazilian funk star Anitta, who lost 300,000 followers on social media after showing her devotion to Candomble. - 'Our ancestors survived slavery' - Academic and OLR member Ivanir dos Santos attributes the persecution to the "political growth of evangelical groups" and "Christian fundamentalist groups," which have sought to "suffocate" African spiritual heritage in Brazil. Evangelicals now represent almost a third of Brazil's population of over 200 million people, with Evangelical lawmakers and senators comprising one of the biggest and most powerful lobbies in the National Congress. In favelas and other poor neighborhoods, priests and followers of Afro-Brazilian faiths often suffer persecution from the criminal factions that rule over these areas -- banning them in favor of Christianity, according to the OLR. "People must respect the right of each person to follow their religion," Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, said recently. She has set up an anonymous reporting service and programs to combat religious intolerance. According to the latest census data in 2010, nearly 600,000 Brazilians identify as followers of religions of African origin. "Our ancestors survived slavery. Even with this violence, we will continue to survive," said dos Santos. ll/app/fb/jgc
