Regardless of the blistering warmth on a Saturday night time in December 2024, within the metropolis of Belém, a buzzing crowd packed the grounds in entrance of the Güera Stage, one of many foremost sights at Psica Pageant — probably the most vital music occasions in Brazil’s Amazonian area.
Employees members warn followers to maintain their distance from the barricades, as fireworks might be used through the present, additional intensifying the sweltering environment. Earlier, the identical stage had already hosted main acts like BaianaSystem, and the close by stage was gearing up for artists who promote out arenas in Brazil, such because the rap phenom Duquesa and pop celebrity Pabllo Vittar. Nonetheless, probably the most feverishly anticipated units is that of an area diva: Viviane Batidão, topped within the Brazilian State of Pará because the “Queen of Tecnomelody”.
When Viviane’s present lastly kicks off, the workers’s guarantees are delivered. Fireworks explode on the choreographed excessive factors. It looks like a deeper promise coming true: Amazonian pop is stepping firmly into the nationwide highlight.
For residents of Pará, catching Viviane stay isn’t uncommon, however seeing her headline Psica Pageant, framed inside a parade of nationwide skills, below the trimmings of superstardom, feels totally different. It’s a full show of Pará’s and the Amazon’s vibrant pop scene being acknowledged for what it really is: part of Brazilian pop tradition, but a really distinctive one. The choreographed dance routines, extravagant costumes, pyrotechnics, and staging that spotlights the showwoman — none of that is new. These components have lengthy been the lifeblood of brega pop and tecnobrega exhibits throughout Pará.
Their roots weave collectively Brazilian and worldwide influences with an unmistakable regional aptitude: tributes to Indigenous cultures, ballroom dances, and rhythms born from the rivers and rainforests. The distinction now? The remainder of Brazil may lastly be paying consideration.
Brazilian Pop with a Northern Aptitude
Viviane Batidão has spent almost 20 years constructing her profession. But, 2024 marks a turning level — not only for her, however for Amazonian pop as a complete. She clinched the distinguished Prêmio Multishow within the “Brazil” class (which options one artist from every administrative area of the nation), whereas her protégé Zaynara, a Technology Z singer additionally from Pará, received Finest New Artist. The Prêmio Multishow — one in every of Brazil’s greatest music awards — confronted criticism in previous years for overlooking artists from the North. Viviane’s acceptance speech lower by way of that historical past with gorgeous readability:
“The North of Brazil is wealthy in magnificence, filled with unimaginable artists and abilities. We devour all the things the remainder of Brazil produces, however Brazil doesn’t devour our music the way in which we want it could.” To PopMatters, Zaynara described her win as a “collective victory”, particularly as a result of it was determined by common vote.
Pop from Brazil’s Northern aspect appears to be experiencing a second wave. The primary wave occurred within the early 2000s with Banda Calypso’s meteoric rise to nationwide fame. Practically 30 years later, though the band is lengthy dissolved, their former frontwoman Joelma’s solo profession is prospering. In 2024, her observe “Voando professional Pará” (“Flying to Pará”) grew to become a viral sensation throughout Brazil. With a hook centered across the phrase “eu vou tomar um tacacá” (“I’ll have a tacacá” — a reference to a beloved Amazonian dish), the music was a meme, then right into a full-blown vacationer marketing campaign for town of Belém.
Whereas Joelma stays a well-recognized face to Brazilians, a brand new era can also be seizing the highlight. Manu Bahtidão, who first gained regional fame because the voice of Banda Batidão, scored a nationwide breakthrough with “Daqui Pra Sempre”, a Portuguese-language model of Loreen’s Eurovision 2023 hit, “Tattoo”.
In distinction to Pará’s long-standing custom of unauthorized variations of international songs, Manu’s polished transfer signaled a shift for Amazonian pop. The scene needed to play by skilled guidelines to develop.
As if a celestial alignment was conspiring in its favor, Amazonian pop bought a viral enhance in 2024 due to social media algorithms. DJ Meury and DJ Ronaldo’s remix “Copo de Veneno” — a remix that meshes the melody from the songbook of an African-based faith, Umbanda, with technobrega beats — exploded on TikTok by way of a clip of a lady spinning in conventional technobrega type.
Amazonian Pop’s Many Permutations
Amazonian pop is available in many shapes and sounds. It pulls influences from European synthpop, digital dance music, Latin American ballroom genres, reggae, rock ‘n’ roll, world pop references like Madonna, and naturally, Amazonian-born genres like carimbó. The phrase “brega” is usually used as an umbrella time period that embody a lot of its variants: tecnobrega, tecnomelody, brega saudade, brega calypso, guitarrada, rock doido.
To Viviane Batidão, music made within the Amazon is extra than simply music. “There’s a wealthy and highly effective tradition that encompasses not simply the rhythms, however our cultural id as a complete: our garments, our meals, and the tales of the riverside individuals,” she tells PopMatters.
A part of the magic of Amazonian popular culture lies in how alien it might really feel even to different Brazilians. The dances are not like every other dance style made in Brazil. Brega and tecnobrega have their very own distinct strikes, that are solely just lately being acknowledged as a part of the Brazilian dance catalog, alongside forró and samba de gafieira.
As for the music, totally different sounds and artists attraction to the individuals of the Amazon in ways in which don’t precisely resonate with the remainder of the nation. Nationally acclaimed for songs like “Frevo Mulher”, singer Amelinha was one of many stars of Psica Pageant, the place she carried out “Pressentimento” to a passionate crowd. The music is a basic in Pará’s sound methods, however stays just about unknown elsewhere.
Another excuse why Amazonian pop can really feel international to Brazilians exterior the North is as a result of, in some ways, it’s. Whereas Brazil typically views itself as culturally remoted from the remainder of Latin America, the State of Pará has at all times maintained a deep reference to the continent’s rhythms, particularly cumbia and merengue.
“Not like most of Brazil, which traditionally regarded to Europe and the U.S. for its musical influences, Pará’s sonic id has lengthy been rooted in its Latin American neighbors, making its pop music really feel each acquainted and alien to the remainder of the nation.”All our references have at all times been Latin, whereas the remainder of Brazil regarded as much as Europe”, Viviane Batidão tells PopMatters. “We have been remoted. However now, due to the brand new period of the Web, we’re lastly connecting.”
Talking of the Web, in some ways, Amazonian pop has at all times anticipated digital and social media phenomena. Lengthy earlier than TikTok’s sped-up, pitch-shifted songs grew to become a pattern, technomelody was already spinning high-BPM instrumentals with high-pitched melodies.
Viviane Batidão Is the Queen of Tecnomelody
Viviane Batidão proudly wears the title of Queen of Tecnomelody — a style she defines as “digital music made within the Amazon.” In the meantime, Zaynara has coined her label: beat melody.
“I took the bottom of Pará’s brega, components from brega calypso, guitars, influences from musical icons from my metropolis, like Mestre Cupijó; I combined it with pop and a customized drum equipment,” she tells PopMatters. “Beat melody is a reinterpretation of many Pará rhythms in a single place. It’s versatile and lets me experiment. I really like the inventive freedom [that Amazonian pop allows].”
Weeks earlier than Viviane and Zaynara’s wins at Prêmio Multishow, each singers have been featured in Áurea, a particular present led by worldwide celebrity DJ Alok to have a good time the opening of COP 30 — the United Nations Local weather Convention — hosted in Belém. Pará singers Joelma and Gaby Amarantos have been additionally featured.
Digital music events are a large a part of Amazonian tradition, represented by aparelhagens (sound system events), the place many iconic Northern Brazilian DJs debuted. Now, different Brazilian DJs, reminiscent of Pedro Sampaio and Alok, are catching up. Throughout Áurea, Alok’s set highlighted remixes and beats from famed Pará DJs, proudly showcasing tecnobrega and “rock doido” (“loopy rock”), one other Amazonian invention.
Rock Doido Electrifies
Regardless of its title, rock doido shares much less with conventional rock ’n’ roll than different variants of brega: it’s essentially the most digital of the breeds. It even caught the eye of the producers of worldwide digital music occasion Boiler Room, who gave DJ Miss Tacacá a complete rock doido-based set.
Rock doido additionally stole the present throughout one in every of Psica Pageant’s greatest headliners: Liniker, who ended her live performance with an electrifying rock doido remix of her hit “Caju”, produced by DJ Child Plus Measurement. “I really feel like rock doido is gaining more room and breaking extra limitations,” Child Plus Measurement tells PopMatters. “It jogs my memory of how [baile] funk music broke into the mainstream — by bringing one thing recent and addictive.”
The comparability to Rio’s baile funk is spot-on. Like technobrega and rock doido, baile funk rose from marginalized communities, fusing digital beats with uncooked, native taste. Regardless of going through enduring prejudice for its favela origins and infrequently sexually charged lyrics, funk has clawed its approach into broader acceptance. It additionally helped that the style originated from Rio de Janeiro, a spot already positioned within the collective creativeness as a Brazilian reference.
In the meantime, Amazonian pop nonetheless faces an uphill battle, rising from a area even most Brazilians deal with as a distant, misunderstood frontier. What’s lacking is a cohesive branding effort that ties it to symbols just like the Amazon rainforest itself — or even perhaps to its deep, genuine ties to Latin America.
As Belém prepares for COP 30 in 2025, the occasion is setting a highlight within the metropolis and Brazil’s North not simply culturally (attracting different occasions reminiscent of Amazônia Para Sempre, a Rock in Rio’s spinoff that Mariah Carey will headline), but additionally politically, elevating world consciousness of the area and the Amazon rainforest’s essential significance. As Brazil slowly involves phrases with its Latin id, with the Latin American core rising in social media and even traditionally missed Latin stars like Dangerous Bunny beginning to make waves within the nation, maybe Amazonian pop is on course to develop.
“Folks typically say we [Northern Brazilians] are the sting of Brazil,” Viviane Batidão says. “However no — we’re the start of Brazil. It’s about time individuals acknowledge the ability of our music and tradition.”
