Anitta’s Funk as Resistance and Respect
“Funk Generation” not only broke records for Anitta, it broke barriers that marginalized communities for centuries.
Anitta “Funk Generation” album cover. Photo by: Universal Music. (Marina Meireles // The Underground)
When thinking about resistance, it’s hard not to think about how most of pop culture that actually has an impact in our lives comes from resistance movements. From music to film, any and every media that was inspired by injustice or by a social movement, has an actual impact in our society and the systems imposed upon us because it shows what resistance can do and change. Keeping that in mind, there’s one particular example of resistance in the music industry that comes to mind and I hope to dissect it here: Anitta and her devotion to making Funk popular across the globe.
For those who are unfamiliar with her, Anitta is a Brazilian artist — singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, host, the list goes on — who was starting to be recognized by the western music industry in the past couple of years. When she first started her career at the national level in Brazil in 2010, she was not welcomed and respected by her audience, since funk wasn’t recognized as a mainstream musical genre. And so she made a promise to her fan base, “I will make our Funk be respected in our country.” And so she did.
It wasn’t easy to change the mindset of many Brazilians that didn’t consider Brazilian Funk to be real music. Funk is a music genre in Brazil that mostly reflects the hardships, injustices and prejudice that many go through in the country., Specially those who live in favelas and are often marginalized and underrepresented minorities in the country. The lyrics reflect on the lives these artists had growing up in such circumstances and how they dream of a better life, but also, how they are proud of the way they grow up and the people that surround them.
Anitta, just like many Funk artists, came from a humble background and grew up dreaming of using her art to give her family a better life. Today she is amongst the most famous Brazilian artists, with multiple awards from the VMA’s, EMA’s and a Grammy nomination. As well as performances in the main North American’s award shows and Coachella, being the first Brazilian artist to perform at the festival.
Anitta performing her set at Coachella on April 16, 2022. Photo by: Coachella on X. (Marina Meireles // The Underground)
But, her success didn’t come overnight, Anitta first started incorporating pop beats to her songs to make her projects more respected in Brazilian culture, while still maintaining her roots alive and making her music more funk and authentic over the years, transforming funk into a more respected rhythm in the country. After she established herself as a national artist in Brazil, she aimed for international recognition. In 2017, she made her first attempt at becoming internationally famous, being able to break into the Latin music industry by making songs in Spanish and using reggaeton as her primary genre, leaving funk aside. By doing that, she slowly started to be seen and heard in the U.S., the market she aimed to enter from the beginning.
Once Anitta was recognized as an international artist, she started to go back to her Brazilian roots. In 2022, she released “Girl from Rio”, a song that sampled “Girl from Ipanema” — the classic that made bossa nova famous around the globe — adding a twist to the lyrics by singing about the actual reality of living in Brazil. She remixed the original song with funk, something that has been done previously by Brazilian rap and hip-hop artists aiming to create social change. By doing that, she started to bring funk again to her craft, but now in a much bigger scope. In that same year, Anitta also released a news album, “Versions of Me” that included songs in Portuguese, Spanish and English. Having funk beats included in almost all her songs she became the first latin solo artist to have a number 1 song on Spotify with the single “Envolver”. While Anitta did open doors for Brazilian artists, she and her colleagues still need to find a way to make funk more respected in Brazil and internationally and really consolidate it as a globalized genre.
Anitta keeps working on it. In 2024 she released the critically acclaimed studio album “Funk Generation” that led to her first sold out tour in the U.S., Canada and Europe. The album showcases in 15 songs what true Brazilian Funk is about and sounds like. This is the first Anitta album where she’s actually able to showcase what funk is not only internationally, but to her own country as well. This album is her first act to give the respect funk and the marginalized communities it represents deserves, after years of resistance.
This is Anitta’s way of showing the resistance and perseverance of her community and showing their worth, and whether people like it or not, respect will be demanded for the future of funk and its power to create change.
