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Latin Grammy-nominated Brazilian singer Anitta dropped the music video for her new song “Me Gusta” featuring Cardi B and Myke Towers on Friday. The colorful video pays homage to their Brazilian, Latin, and African roots. The fun video has one of a kind outfits, a catwalk, and a catchy beat.
Both artists are also part of this year’s Latina Powerhouse Top 100 by HOLA! USA. Annita told NBC the song ”has two very big rhythms from ghetto parts of Brazil. “Funk, which is a rhythm that was born in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, I was born in a place like that.” The other one is pagode, a sub-genre of samba. The catchy song goes flipping effortlessly between English and Spanish and is a taste of her forthcoming album, which is executive produced by the award-winning Ryan Tedder.
The video was shot pre-pandemic in Bahia‘s capital city, Salvador. She told the NBC she brought in an expert on Afro-Brazilian history to work with her and help her best showcase those roots while highlighting the beauty of Afro-Latinas, women, and the LGTBQ community that lives in the area. Annita has been using her platform to showcase underrepresented communities in Brazil. ”I’ve suffered a lot of prejudice in my career because I came from these places, these humble, poor places,” said Anitta, who was born in Honório Gurgel, a lower-class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. The video was viewed over 3.6 million times in 8 hours.
“If I can do something to try to make the next people who come after not go through the things that I went through — for me, that’s amazing.”
Quarantine has been the story of 2020 for Anitta, but she hasn’t let it slow her down. She’s gone live on socials nearly every day from her home in Rio de Janeiro, keeping her fans up to date on her recording process. She’s also joined Miley Cyrus, J Balvin, Katy Perry, David Guetta, P. Diddy, and more for chats and performances. Before the world slowed down, Anitta was set to take both the Coachella and Rock In Rio stages by storm in 2020.
As for how she got Cardi B on track, Annita told NBC News, “I think the universe brings back whatever you send to the people.” She had no idea that Cardi was on the track until her manager surprised her a few weeks ago when he showed her the mix. ”I didn‘t know anything,” said Anitta. ”And when I was listening, it dropped her [Cardi B’s] voice and I was like, wow! I couldn’t believe it. That’s a perfect match. Its always been a dream of mine to bring my Brazilian culture to the rest of the world and she is the best bridge for that.”
Anitta, 27, born Larissa de Macedo Machado, has become the leading artist of a new generation of Latin American music since she broke through in Brazil six years ago. Boasting 5 Latin GRAMMY Award nominations, 6 MTV EMA wins, nearly 5 billion YouTube views, and 6.5 billion Spotify streams she has amassed over 48 million Instagram followers and over 14 million YouTube subscribers with more than 4.9 billion views. Earlier this summer, Anitta signed with Warner Records and she is currently working on her fifth album. It is expected to be released sometime this year. Anitta is set to perform “Me Gusta” live for the first time on ”The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon Wednesday, Sept. 23. She has also been confirmed to perform at iHeart Radio‘s Fiesta Latina 2020.