Anitta cleared her schedule to return to Brazil to join Madonna during her massive concert at Copacabana Beach in Brazil. During an in-depth interview with Jay Shetty on his On Purpose podcast, the Funk Generation star raved about Madonna and how important it was for them to perform together.
“Madonna’s concert had 1.6 million people. It was historic,” Anitta told Shetty. “But also, her concert had a lot of conservatives saying, ‘Oh my God, this is so… the devil.’ She’s a woman who dedicated her life to fighting for people’s rights—their sexualities, the LGBTQ community, and for women to be free to feel pleasure because, for a long time, only men were allowed to feel pleasure. She fought for that.”
Anitta described Madonna’s cultural importance to queer people in her native country. “Celebrating with a million people at a beach where they were free to be themselves was amazing. Not only gays but families accepting gays, lesbians, and trans people,” Anitta said. “But a lot of conservatives were like, ‘Oh, this is the devil, this is this, this is that.’ I just feel like we can do whatever we want, and we don’t need to judge… We’re all souls looking for evolution.”
Ultimately, Anitta was just “happy to be there” with Madonna on stage after collaborating with her on Madame X standout “Faz Gostoso” in 2019.
“When she came to Brazil, the first thing she said was, ‘Okay, we gotta do this.’ I actually couldn’t at first, but then I moved so many things around so I could be there,” Anitta said on the podcast. “It was so important. She also invited Pablo Vittar, a very successful and famous drag queen and great singer from Brazil.”
Madonna closed out her career-spanning Celebration Tour with a free concert in Brazil, setting the record for the largest audience ever for a standalone concert by any artist in history. Drag star singer Pabllo Vittar also joined the singer for a performance of “Music.”
Anitta dropped her album Funk Generation — including tracks such as “Double Team” with Bad Gyal, “Funk Rave,” 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.”
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