Maria Rita, Giulia Be loose and more: how was the official Latin Grammy event in São Paulo

The Best New Artist Showcase Tour, the official Latin Grammy event, brought together dozens of artists and celebrities in São Paulo. On a rooftop in the Historic Center, in the capital of São Paulo, on the night of this Wednesday (12), the feeling is that it was a big party of friends from the world of music, but with a few hints of controversy in sight.

In the middle of the mild night in São Paulo, Maria Rita was the artist most expected by the guests. Eight times winner of different Latin Grammy categories, the gaucho starred in a commercial alongside her own mother, Elis Regina, recreated in artificial intelligence, last week. She was one of the last to arrive on the red carpet and the artist’s advisor claimed little time for questions from journalists. So little time, that it was just a generic career question that was answered. Even with the pleading of the journalists (“just one more question, Maria!”, said the journalists, who wanted to know about the commercial), the request was not granted.

On stage, in turn, Elis’ daughter had good moments. She laughed, waved and even got emotional. In one of the numbers on her setlist, “Eu e Você Semper”, a classic by Jorge Ben Jor, she drew applause from those present. It was a real Brazilian music lesson on stage, praising the best of MPB in a few minutes – the setlist lasted less than 15 minutes, in all.

For the other names of the night, Giulia Be (nominated for the Breakthrough Artist award in 2021) and Clarissa (nominated for the same category, in 2022), what happened there looked like profit. Giulia was seen, for example, screaming and celebrating the speech of the president of the Latin Recording Academy, Manuel Abud, with a lot of applause and whistles. Almost a thank you and a request for more attention to Brazilians at the same time. A real “loose girl” (as her single would say).

On the red carpet, each of the national artists sought their space. While Giulia Be spoke of the emotions of her first tour (“It has been a moment to praise my own team, made up mostly of women”, she said), MC Daniel showed resilience, after several controversial episodes – the funk singer had videos going through a blitz police officer in Paris, France, during his tour of Europe.

“I’m fine, I learned to deal with it. My grandmother called me to find out if everything that happened was true (laughs)”, he said, after being questioned about what that moment taught him. “If this event had happened three weeks ago, I wouldn’t even be here.”

Even Simaria, who has divided the opinion of the fans due to her musical separation from her sister Simone, tried to be appeasing. Questioned by a journalist, she was calm about her relative. “She’s my sister, I’ll always wish her the best in the world, it’s all right,” she assured.

Finally, perhaps Abud himself, the official representative of the Latin Grammy, gave the lyrics of what was happening there. “Brazil has a lot of potential to dominate the world. They are very powerful voices, they transform everything they touch”, he explained.

Thus ended the official event. On the rooftop, after the shows, it seemed like a lucky event for those present: Di Ferrero, for example, took selfies with passers-by; Ananda, the author of “Quero Que Tu Vá”, seemed to be confused with any other blogger. It was a music party, with a lot of glamour, but with little emotion. The certainty is that Brazil, once again, has carved its place among the global ones. Whether with Maria Rita, or with Giulia Be.