In a recent post I wrote about the importance of Whitney Houston, I explained that it would be near impossible for a black female singer to rise to the stature of Whitney in Brazil because the media has an obsession with singers that possess a more European appearance. Salvador, Bahia, the center of Brazil’s African culture, is the perfect example of this. 80% of the city’s population is of African origin as well as 70-75% of the state of Bahia’s population. Taken from the front page of the online newspaper Terra, is an ad asking for people to vote for their favorite “muse” of Bahia’s Carnaval.
A muse is defined as: “A goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a poet, artist, thinker, or the like.”
Although Salvador’s population is 80% African descendant, 4 of the 5, or 80% of the singers featured in the ad look like their ancestors came directly from Europe. The only Afro-Brazilian singer in the ad is Anna Mametto, who is the second from the left. Although Brazil’s elites claim to be proud of its African heritage, the power structure of the city of Salvador and the state of Bahia is dominated by persons of primarily European heritage and appearance. Why is that?
For more on the obstruction of Afro-Brazilian females in the world of Brazilian Popular Music, see the article The meaning of Whitney Houston and the obstruction of a black female pop superstar in Brazil
Source: Black Women of Brazil
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