Note from BBT: It’s happened numerous times over my time posting material to this blog that I set out to do a particular article and, as I discover more information, it gets more intriguing, which leads to the article ending up being longer that it was originally intended to be. Today’s piece is a perfect example of this. Its origins didn’t even start with the subject of the article, but with a search term on this blog as well as another subject. Let me explain.
A few weeks ago, when analyzing my daily blog statistics, I discovered that my most read material of the day was a piece I did on the criticism on well-known comedic actor Paulo Gustavo’s use of blackface in a comedy skit from 2016. At that moment, I asked myself, ‘why are people coming to the blog searching for info on Paulo Gustavo?’ The actor isn’t someone I discuss much on this blog. I knew that Gustavo had been hospitalized for Covid-19 and….
Stop. That’s when it hit me. Don’t tell me that Gustavo succumbed to this deadly virus, I thought. At that moment, I did a quick search and true enough, reports of the actor’s death were all over the internet. Honestly, even knowing how deadly the virus has been over the past fifteen months or so, when I heard that Gustavo had been hospitalized, I sincerely believed he would overcome its effects. I was wrong.
I learned of Gustavo’s death in the same manner in which I had learned of singer Cassiano’s death a few days later: an article on him being the most searched on this blog for the day. Gustavo’s death shocked a Brazil that was already being traumatized with the growing number of deaths throughout the country. To give you an idea of the devastation, reports have surfaced that in some Brazilian cities, the deaths are now outnumbering the number of births.
Singer Mariah Nala has been constructing her career for a few years, but sadly, it was actually because of the coronavirus that I discovered her beautiful voice. It was Nala’s voice that touched perhaps millions of Brazilians at the seventh day mass of Paulo Gustavo’s death.
Performing in front of the world-famous tourist site of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Nala wowed the audience with her rendition of “Aleluia”, a Portuguese version of the classic “Hallelujah,” as well as “Pretty Hurts” by Pop superstar Beyoncé, in recognition of Gustavo’s favorite artist.
Don’t trip, but as I don’t own any music by Beyoncé and am not one of her biggest fans, I had never heard this song before and I was briefly mesmerized by Nala’s angelic voice. ‘Who is this young woman?’, I wanted to know and ‘how come I’d never heard of her until now?’.
I’ve written much over the years on how it seems that Brazil seems to impede the rise of any black female singer who could reach, at least, the national heights of success of a Beyoncé or a Whitney Houston, and like other talented voices I’ve discovered in recent years, I wondered if the question of race might hinder Nala’s commercial potential as well.
Well, as it turns out, the young woman is getting her chance. And when I say young, I mean young. I was shocked to learn that this young woman is only 15-years old. I don’t know if my surprise was due to the emotional and expressive range of her vocals or her appearance, but I would have never guessed that she was under the age of 20….well, then again, looking at some of her press photos, I can see her youth now.
Nala is yet another singer who has established a following via social networks which led to her attracting the attention of a major record label. Will her story be the next to make history? Will she ascend to pop superstardom like Mrs. Knowles-Carter? Only time will reveal, but at it turns out, her performance of “Pretty Hurts” isn’t the only way she has a sort of six degrees of separation connection with the Princess of Pop.
Beyoncé’s mother pays tribute to Paulo Gustavo: “My daughter loved him, we will miss him”
By Samuel Pereira
With each passing day, it seems that it becomes more difficult to understand that one of the biggest names in Brazilian humor left us so early, becoming yet another victim of COVID-19, a disease that has already killed more than 3 million people worldwide.
Tuesday, May 04, the disease took Paulo Gustavo, who had his death confirmed at 9:12pm, after staying more than 40 days in hospital, waging a great battle against infection, even showing a great improvement and interacting with his family, but the situation worsened rapidly on the previous Monday (03) and the situation became irreversible.
As everyone knew, Paulo Gustavo was a great admirer of Beyoncé, coming to interpret the singer several times in his play, 220 Volts. Beyoncé used her website to pay homage to the actor, even taking Paulo’s family by surprise, in the knowledge that the death of the beloved comedian was reverberated throughout the world.
Today (06) in the evening, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, also paid tribute to the actor and revealed that just as Paulo was a Beyoncé fan, the singer also liked the actor very much and revealed that they are praying for the comedian’s family.
Immediately, many Brazilian fans rushed to Tina’s social networks to thank her for all the support and affection that the mother of one of the most influential singers in music gave to the Brazilian.
Who is Mariah Nala?
She is already famous for the covers she sings on Instagram
By David Mesquita
During the seventh day mass of actor and comedian Paulo Gustavo, a singer named Mariah Nara moved the web by singing two songs in honor of the artist. The first was “Hallelujah” and the second “Pretty Hurts”, by Beyoncé, a singer of whom Paulo was a big fan.
The voice of the young singer caught the attention of Internet users who were watching the transmission over the internet.
But just who is Mariah Nala?
Incredible as it may seem and for her voice, Mariah Nala is only 15 years old, and is a a new hopeful of Brazilian Popular Music of 2021. The young woman became famous on the web for making cover versions showing all her vocal talent on her Instagram page.
The singer won the ‘Rainha do Chuveiro’ segment as the best singer on the TVZ (Multishow) program. She also signed a contract with the label Sony Music and will soon release a new project.
Mariah takes courses in singing and vocal, jazz, stiletto, piano and theater, and has already won over several singers such as IZA, Preta Gil, Ivete Sangalo, Leo Santana, Ferrugem and many others.
She has also sung a new version of “Dona de Mim” in partnership with the original singer of the hit, IZA, and other Brazilian singers.
mariahnalaoficial
Yesterday was the day to finish my EP in my family @sonymusicbrasil it was all beautiful and soon it will be fresh coming for you! I love you, and thank you for being part of my life and this beautiful dream! Gratitude! 💕✨🥺🙏
mariahnalaoficial
Tribute to the beloved Paulo Gustavo!
I hope I have transmitted the least you deserve. Still not believing in your departure, you were an incredible meteor that passed over the land to cheer us all up!
Eternal gratitude to the whole family, friends and fans!
Eternal @ paulogustavo31 🙏🥺💕
Mariah Nala: only 15 years old, she has won over great artists with a powerful and authentic voice
Courtesy of Portal Famosos
Every day dozens of new names appear in Brazilian music around the country, black voices, white voices, LGBTQIA + voices, voices for all genres and for all tastes and especially, voices that talk and represent their audience.
Some say that even with the effervescence of the Brazilian music market in recent years, the recurrence of novice artists is still small. This mentality, fortunately, has been falling apart thanks to the number of resources and platforms that are giving visibility to talents in multiverses. The strategy? Despite not being a trend, it still works and very well: show off the vocal potential through great successes in places like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
That was how international artists like Justin Bieber back at the end of the first decade of the 2000s or national phenoms like IZA and Jão – more recent – created communities of fans, and consequently made a noise until they became the newest jewelry of the record companies, finding fame after launching very successful authentic copyrighted works.
Driven by an increasingly diverse and promising space of new artists already recognized by a large audience on the internet, young Mariah Nala enters the field, and has already conquered a good part of the new generation of singers from the current Brazilian Pop/R & B/Funk scene.
Some have already seen the girl full of voice and sure of herself making incredible covers of memorable songs on their timelines and we can tell you that this is Mariah Nala, a young woman from Rio de Janeiro, who has in her two hands the future of the next generation of Brazilian music artists.
Mariah, who even pronounces her name Mariá, discovered at a young age that she really wanted to sing: at just four years of age, she already had the behavior of a star, being noticed and supported by her family. Then everything gets easier. At the age of eight and influenced by her family, she got to it: she started singing in the choir of her church, and at the age of 12, she put out her first cover.
She chose Facebook as a platform and Bruno Mars’s “When I Was Your Man” as a song that would definitely be the soundtrack to the beginning of her journey. The success was instantaneous. From there, inspired by the rapper LGBTQIA + Frank Ocean and her mother, Dona Nair Lopes, Mariah earned her first fans and positioned herself on different platforms to expand her community of followers.
On YouTube, for example, her cover videos for songs by Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Meghan Trainor, Gloria Groove and Alicia Keys show her versatility with an empowered image of an already great black artist with style, authenticity and the best of all: vocal presence.
Her biggest success so far on the video platform is a Portuguese version of Andra Day’s “Rise Up”. On Instagram, since she started her covers, she shows a very strong visual presence, in addition to having a community of more than 100 thousand followers, with a great engagement and many compliments to her Pop Star DNA. And of course, not to mention the various markings, reposts and praises by well-known artists such as Liniker, Guilia Be, Preta Gil, Simone and Simaria, Pocah, Pabllo Vittar, who were enchanted by the girl’s resourcefulness for each of her creations.
The most recent international recognition was from Chloe X Halle, an American duo sponsored by Beyoncé, which exploded last year with the release of the album “Ungodly Hour” and the hit “Do It” – nominated for a 2021 Grammy. Inclusive você pode ler nosso texto especial sobre a dupla Chloe x Halle aqui. The outcome of the beginning of this story couldn’t be different: producers Junior Provesi and Cadu Benin were responsible for officially discovering the girl at 12 and believing in her potential as a star.
They guarantee that soon we will be listening to totally authorial material by Mariah Nala, and that of course, it will certainly be one of the revelations for Brazilian music in the coming years.
And of that, we have no doubts!
With all this incredible material in hand, it’s impossible not to believe in the girl’s strength and her incredible talent. Are you ready for this novelty?
Our tip is to listen to Mariah’s covers a lot and get used to her voice, which without a doubt, will be one of the protagonists in the Pop/R&B scene in the coming years.
EXCLUSIVE: Mariah Nala signs with Sony Music and prepares first authorial release
Courtesy of Portal Famosos
IT’S GOING DOWN! Finally, the singer Mariah Nala is in full swing in the production of her first EP, with songs totally original songs and will now also have great support!
As the newest contracted artist of Sony Music, Mariah Nala is preparing her first EP which will have the stamp of the Uruguayan music producer Augustro Cabrera, but known by his surname, in addition to having already worked with big names such as Ludmilla, Claudia Leitte and the funkeiro Jerry Smith. Confirmation came via Instagram from Mariah’s music producer.
There are still not many details about the sound that Nala intends to address in her first authorial EP, but it is expected that the singer will remain in her vocal line already presented to her followers, mixing between R&B and Pop.
Source: Metropolitan FM, Portal Famosos 1, 2, 3
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