Pabllo Vittar — Brazilian Pop Diva is a Drag
By Lucas Oliveira Dantas
It is summer in Brazil. Temperatures reach the gruelling 40 degrees Celsius in some sites as people flee to the seashore at any possibility. However, the heat is the usual state in Brazil and such time period is when we are most famous for and dare I say it, most happy as we await the biggest street party in the world, the Carnival, that happened this year on the end of February.
Composer, singer and drag queen star Pabllo Vittar played on many cities during the Carnival, after a last year of great achievements in her career. Her 2015’s hit single Open Bar has met a huge success on the Internet and its video has already surpassed the 5 million views mark on YouTube. The song is a Brazilian version of Major Lazer and DJ Snake’s ubiquitous hit Lean On and was approved — and tweeted — by one of the original composers, Diplo himself.
“It was surreal”, says Vittar about the happening that very much sounds like a social media fairy tale for artists nowadays. Following the song’s commercial success Vittar, has made gigs all over the country, been featured on many national publications, besides having endorsements of brands like Adidas and Avon.
Pabllo Vittar was born in 1994 in the state of Maranhão, on Brazil’s Northeastern region, where she started performing on church, family and school parties still as a young boy. As a teenager and under the Pablo Knowles moniker — in homage to his idol Beyoncé — he achieved a local success performing on gay clubs and Pride parades.
Her drag queen personae only came to life in the early 2010s when she took part on drag queen beauty pageants and later dropped college to pursue a music career. On becoming a drag queen singer, she says “it was an extremely natural process. Ever since I got on drag for the first time I knew it would be my artistic personae.”
During 2016 her star power took all over Brazil and Vittar has been recognized as one of the major names on the LGBTQ culture and Brazilian popular music. Since January 2016 she’s become a regular on Amor & Sexo [Love & Sex] a weekly late night variety show on Rede Globo — Brazil’s biggest TV channel — that features themes related to sexuality, gender issues, LGBTQ culture and feminism to a broad television audience. She views this as a step out of marginality for Drag culture in Brazil.
In January 2017, she released her debut album Vai Passar Mal, mainly produced with Brazilian’s DJ and producer Rodrigo Gorky, from electropop group Bonde do Rolê, it features many artists, including Diplo. Receiving critical acclaim, Vai Passar Mal is a fusion of regional Brazilian rhythms like samba, axé, forró and Carioca funk with global Dance beats.
The album’s latest single Todo Dia — featuring Brazilian gay rapper Rico Dalasam — reached #3 on Spotify’s Viral 50 Global chart, and has become a summer hit and feminist anthem in Brazil. She was also invited by one the most popular Axé and lesbian artists Daniela Mercury, to debut on Salvador’s Carnival — “it’s been hard to control the anxiety! She is the queen of Axé on the biggest Carnival in the world,” gushes Vittar.
We interviewed Pabllo Vittar right before her Carnival debut and she discussed about her musical influences, her blooming career and her role as an LGBTQ artist in Brazil.
Lewis: You write and sing songs since your adolescence. What artists had influenced you the most and did you already see music as your main career abck then?
Pabllo Vittar: I’ve had two great inspirations. The first and foremost of them were the technobrega bands from Brazil’s northern [culture, a hugely popular music genre that mixes cheesy romantic music with dance and electronic rhythms. The genre became mainly known by its amateur distribution and its history was featured on peer-to-peer filesharing documentary Good Copy Bad Copy].
The second was Beyoncé, I have always been fascinated by her. I had always dreamt of working with music at the time but I was yet too young to see that as a career.
L: Your debut album Vai Passar Mal is a surprising compilation of Brazilian rhythms (such as Axé and Forró) with international Pop. How was the creative process for the album?
PV: Exactly! I was raised in Brazil’s northern region where genres like technobrega, axé and forró are strongly popular and, at the same time, I used to listen to a lot of international Pop. So, for this album I desired to make my cultural influences very clear. I love international Pop music but Brazil has many brilliant rhythms and sounds that we must make present on our national Popular music.
L: Open Bar, your version of Major Lazer and DJ Snake’s single Lean On has become a viral hit on the Internet. How did you reach and come to work with Diplo, one of the writers of the original song?
PV: The partnership with Diplo happened very unexpectedly! We [she and Bonde do Rolê’s Rodrigo Gorky] made Open Bar and sent him unpretentiously. But he is the composer of the original song and we wanted him to hear it first. He did, loved it and replied to us with great compliments about our work even tweeting the song. It was surreal! He is one of the biggest musical producers of our time, right?! After that we kept on talking about more collaborations and then came Então Vai, a song from my debut album that was also produced by him.
L: What do you think of the Internet’s role on the music production for your generation?
PV: In my opinion it is the most important medium to distribute music! Everyone is connected all the time awaiting the next amazing thing to hear and consume.
L: What have been the effects of this viral success outside of Brazil? Are there any plans for an international career?
PV: I don’t think we can already talk of an international career. Mine is only a year and a half old, I’m still a baby in the industry. I have contact with some fans from other countries but there aren’t plans for an overseas tour yet. The biggest effect so far has been reaching number 3 on Spotify’s Viral 50 Global list.
L: Your new single Todo Dia is about sexual self-liberation and has become a hit on social media amongst feminists. What do you think about that?
PV: Not only amongst the feminist girls! Todo Dia is a song for everyone who wants to break free from society’s moral shackles imposed upon us. We are sluts every day, we are effeminate every day, we are whatever we desire to be every day and owe nothing to nobody!
L: You are an icon of LGBTQ empowerment in Brazil. How does that influence your creative process?
PV: I’d rather be more active on the micro field of the movement. I’m always having conversations with my fans, trying hard to be present in their lives showing that there is always a way out. Hate and prejudice is everywhere in our society and having a drag [queen] singer occupying spaces that, so far in Brazil, have been extremely heteronormative is already a sign that we all can and will fight for more space.
L: LGBTQ artists such as yourself and others like Rico Dalasam and Lia Clark have been very successful on Brazilian social media. Do you feel that there’s an openly Queer community being formed on Brazil’s popular music?
PV: We already have a very big and strong queer and trans community on every musical genre in Brazil, from Hip Hop to popular music and rap! Besides me, Rico and Lia Clark we have Glória Groove and Linn da Quebrada, As Bahias e a Cozinha Mineira, Liniker, Aretuza Lovi amongst others, all occupying spaces where LGBTQ artists’ representativeness was extremely poor.
L: Drag culture has been taking the world, mainly after the success of shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race. In Brazil, you are part of the regular cast of popular variety show Amor & Sexo. How do you see the way Drag culture has been appearing on Brazil’s media?
PV: The art of Drag has been spreading and garnering more attention everywhere and one of the main — if not the main one — responsible for that is RuPaul! She has been extremely important in changing the marginal role society has always imposed on us drag queens. We must break that barrier and it will be a long process, but we are conquering it step by step, showing that drag is an art to be respected.
L: It has become very important for the gay community to occupy the means of cultural production in Brazil. How is it happening for you?
PV: Nowadays there are many [openly] LGBTQ artists working on many fields, each one striving for space and paving the way for [other] artists to show their work. I’m a regular on a show on Brazil’s largest TV channel, showing that we can have our space on Brazilian traditional media. I have also been on campaigns for brands like Adidas, Avon and Skol [a popular beer brand in Brazil] and for the last year I’ve made concerts all over the country.
L: So, finally, what is already happening for Pabllo Vittar in 2017? What are the big plans from now on?
PV: 2017 has already been a turmoil! I’m booked for shows until July. It will be at least 8 concerts a month, besides the taping of Amor e Sexo and some other projects. Every song from my album will be released as a single until the beginning of the next year and we are already working on my sophomore album, to be released sometime in 2018.
