Dear reader,
This weekend (5th) is the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, and this year the Brazilian artist Anitta was nominated as Best New Artist, a category that has not been appointed to Brazilians since Eumir Deodato in 1974. This is a huge achievement, as the Latin Grammys have made it difficult for South American artists to break through and get a place on the global awards.
Although Anitta isn't new to the Brazilian public, she has been making her way through the American pop music charts with songs like "Envolver" and "Girl from Rio," which made her the first Brazilian to win not one, but two VMA's (MTV's Video Music Awards) for Best Latin Female Artist and Best Latin Video, and to take home an AMA (American Music Awards) for Best Latin Female Artist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNj3FInCBrw
In light of these events, we decided to gather some information to tell a little more about Brazil's history through the Grammys, and to know more about the artists who got to take home the awards and present our music to the world.
So sit back and relax as we take a trip through the history of the Brazilian music industry and how we were seen as a cultural reference, exporting different genres and sounds that created an identity for the country that still holds today. And if you enjoyed this post, don't forget to tip us a coffee. We appreciate your support!
Best regards
The Brazilian Report team.
57 years in the making
One of the main highlights of Anitta's nomination is to be placed in one of the main categories of the awards as Best New Artist. The category has not been occupied by Latin American or Brazilian artists for some time, since the Latin American Grammy took the spotlight to showcase talent with categories more suited to Latin popular music genres.
The Latin Grammy was inaugurated in 1994 as a way to give Latin artists a better chance and also to create a better look within the most popular genres within the Latin American music industry, which is so diverse in its own way that it needed new categories that better fit the most popular genres from different countries.
But before they existed, Brazil was a constant presence in the awards, which ended up being more prominent during the 60s and 70s, long before the international categories and the Latin Grammy were born. During this time, Bossa Nova was a completely new genre that stunned the American music industry and ended up becoming part of the culture, appearing in famous movie soundtracks and TV shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVdaFQhS86E
This popularity led Astrud Gilberto and Tom Jobim, one of the pioneers of Bossa Nova, to be recognized by the industry, which placed the duo in the Best New Artist category in 1965. Unfortunately, they lost to the Beatles, which is incredible to imagine as they have such unique and different sounds, but they won Record of the Year with "The Girl from Ipanema".
When was the last time a Brazilian won?
Even though we haven't been in the main categories, Brazilians have been very influential in the music industry, creating new music that really showcases our rich culture that has given us a variety of sounds from different regions of the country.
The latest award to be brought to Brazil was won recently by Eliane Elias, a jazz pianist, singer, and composer who took home the award for Best Latin Jazz Album in 2022. Her work has been diligent in the Latin Jazz category, as she was also the winner in 2016 and 2017 in the same category.
In 2019, Brazilian producer Antonio "Moogie" Canazio was praised with the award for Best Latin Pop Album with Sincera by Claudia Brant, an Argentinian artist. "Moogie" Canazio has been a huge part of the Brazilian pop industry as the producer of one of the biggest live show projects of the duo Sandy & Junior, who were very popular in Brazil during the 2000s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HfAWygGy0M
Other artists worth mentioning are Gilberto Gil, one of the most influential musicians in Brazilian history, who won the Best Contemporary World Music Album category in 2008 with "Eletracústico". Sergio Mendes and Antonio Carlos Jobim were also inducted into the Grammy's Hall of Fame in 2012 and 2019, respectively.
The impact of Anitta’s nomination on the Brazilian music industry?
Anitta's nomination in one of the main categories can be seen as a doorway for other Brazilian artists to be seen as well. But it is worth noting the path she has had to take in relation to other American artists competing with her and are just starting their musical careers, while Anitta already had a whole history behind her before starting to pave her way in the international industry.
Her rapid rise in the charts was a combination of a good strategy with a great knowledge of the Latin American music industry and the trends that could possibly work as a way to integrate American mainstream music and then start to integrate more Brazilian aspects into her work..
By incorporating aspects of Latin music that were growing in the charts and singing in Spanish, Anitta saw an opportunity to make connections with artists that were becoming popular, such as Colombian artists J Balvin and Maluma, with whom she collaborated on the songs "Sim ou Não" with Maluma and a remix of J Balvin's song called "Ginza." The songs in collaboration with her presentation at the 2016 Summer Olympics with Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso landed her a contract with the talent agency Wiliam Morris Endeavor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yrghfw1eNo
After that, her presence in the Latin American charts was constant, along with huge tours with live shows around the world, which made the singer even more famous in the pop charts worldwide. Fast forward to 2023 and the Grammy nomination, after opening so many doors for the first time, the singer ends up being not only an icon for Brazilian artists, but also an influence for many Brazilian artists to follow a path to showcase their work in other countries.