Anitta is standing by her “Aceita” video. In a new interview with the Associated Press, Anitta revealed that she had lost more than 300,000 followers after she featured footage of practices from her Afro-Brazilian faith, Candomblé, in the video for her Funk Generation track.
“I always knew this was going to happen because people have a lot of prejudice but I don’t care honestly,” she told the AP backstage at her Baile Funk Experience tours stop in Los Angeles. “I’m in a phase in my life where I couldn’t care less about what people think, even more [with] this following situation.”
“I rather have half of [them] following me and [they] be amazing people I can vibe and have energy with, than just to have a bunch of lost souls pointing at each other, judging each other,” she added.
The video for the track, named “Accept” in Portuguese, featured imagery of different religions, including a Christian service, a Jewish worshipper with tefillin, Catholic iconography, and a clip of her wearing a dress resembling Obaluaê, the deity of earth and health.
“I don’t care about that anymore,” she added about losing followers. “I used to care how many likes, views, and streams. Nowadays, I just want to be happy with what I’m doing, so I did not care.”
Anitta addressed the controversy stemming from the video in a social media post earlier this month, writing in Portuguese, “I’ve already talked about my religion countless times, but it seems that leaving an artistic work in my catalog forever was too much for those who don’t accept that others think differently.”
“I believe that religions are like rivers flowing into the same place: God, the supreme intelligence. I don’t believe in heaven and hell, I don’t belive in the devil … I believe we all have the power to manifest the divine and the devil in us,” she added. “When I receive messages of repudiation and religious intolerance, I do not feel energy from the divine being sent towards me, I feel the opposite energy. I have faith, not fear.”
Anitta released her album Funk Generation — featuring tracks such as “Double Team” with Bad Gyal, “Funk Rave,” “Grip,” and “Ahi” with Sam Smith — on April 26. “The album thrives when Anitta takes risks, whether she’s showcasing puzzle-like beats or singing catchy lines over weird, harsh samples,” read a Rolling Stone review of the LP. “She has what it takes to pioneer the future of baile funk in pop, and to captivate audiences both in Brazil and around the world.”
Steve Cohen*
