Luísa Sonza and Chico Moedas: how celebrity public outbursts can be good business

Around 11:20 am on Wednesday (20), social media was taken over by a topic: the end of the relationship between singer Luísa Sonza and influencer Chico Veiga, known as Chico Moedas.

Sonza was on Rede Globo’s Mais Você program when she announced the breakup and read a text about betrayal. It was the final point of a romance that had been extremely reported and commented on on the internet in recent weeks, including the song that became a hit on the platforms.

The repercussions of the end of the relationship were immediate. While Sonza read the text on national television, her and Chico’s names dominated the most talked about topics on X (formerly Twitter).

Many people expressed surprise at the end of the brief relationship, which lasted about four months. Meanwhile, others criticized the fact that the artist vented about the case on national television.

On Spotify, the track “Chico”, in honor of her now ex-boyfriend, had more than 1 million streams on the day of the singer’s outburst. According to the GShow portal, the song rose five positions on Thursday (21) and occupied fourth place among the five most listened to songs on the platform currently.

The singer gained thousands of new followers on Instagram and Twitter. A survey by consultancy firm Arquimedes, carried out exclusively for the report, shows that the singer gained 405,000 new followers on both social networks within 24 hours of her outburst. In the same period, it was mentioned around 600 thousand times on both platforms.

Sonza, who has more than 30 million followers on social networks, saw her popularity increase among people who didn’t know her, points out researcher Pedro Bruzzi, one of the partners at the Arquimedes consultancy.

“She had overexposure on open television and became one of the main subjects of digital debate. So it is natural that many people were interested in getting to know or even checking her profile and seeing what she was doing, because she started to reach a different audience than her normal”, says the researcher to BBC News Brasil.

CELEBRITIES OUTLET

Just like in the case of the young singer, artists’ outbursts about their personal lives have become increasingly common in times of social media and have great reach. For their followers, many celebrities expose their achievements, joys and even the difficult times they face.

Recently, a similar situation was experienced by actress Bella Campos, who became famous for participating in the soap opera Pantanal, on Rede Globo. Campos was dating funk singer MC Cabelinho and published an outburst about the end of the relationship shortly after rumors emerged that she had been cheated on.

Bella gained more than a million followers after the episode and became one of the most talked about topics on the networks.

These cases are not limited to Brazil. One of the best known in the recent period is that of Shakira. The Colombian singer revealed that she was betrayed by her ex-husband, former player Gerard Piqué.

Soon after, she released songs about infidelity, which were hugely successful.

Whether by choice, pressure from fans asking for an answer about the artist’s personal life or for commercial purposes, the fact is that these outbursts have also become a form of engagement on social media.

Researcher Bruzzi believes that these outbursts tend to generate engagement because they attract the attention of the public, who want to know more about the artist who is exposing his personal life.

“This exhibition is also a way of humanizing the figure. Because the artist, with a great reach on the network, ends up being dehumanized and when he has these moments of outburst, he brings back the figure behind the image, the person who suffers and has problems like everyone else, who have difficulties in their lives”, says Pedro.

THE SONZA CASE

Luísa Sonza’s personal life has always been in the spotlight throughout her career. When she ended her marriage with YouTuber Whindersson Nunes, she received numerous criticisms and insults. The young woman was even accused of having cheated on her husband – a fact that she always denied.

Since this separation, hate attacks against the artist have become increasingly common. On several occasions, Sonza commented on how this situation affected her mental health and made her seek specialized help.

Months ago, she was back in the news after announcing her relationship with influencer Chico Moedas. Shortly afterwards, at the end of August, she once again gained prominence in the media with the release of her new album.

Among the singer’s new songs, one caught the public’s attention: the song “Chico”. Between praise and criticism, the song became the most listened to from the artist’s new album. At the beginning of September, the song was in the global top 30 on Spotify.

The singer’s passionate manner caught the public’s attention and even drew criticism for exposing her recent relationship.

During the interview with presenter Ana Maria Braga, on Wednesday, many expected the singer to comment on the song and talk about her new boyfriend. But instead, Sonza read a text in which she said she had been betrayed.

“It is unbearable that betrayal, the breach of agreements, respect, trust, zeal and care continue to be normalized. A one-off error. Only those who have been betrayed know what it feels like, the pain that is caused by what is called a one-off error . The destroyed self-esteem, the doubt, the insecurity that something like this causes”, she said, visibly moved.

“Betrayal makes you invalidate yourself, it makes you feel stupid, stupid, a clown, a fool. It’s a pain that’s impossible to explain. It’s a breach of trust in others, it’s the fear of believing in people, it’s a destroyed dream, it’s all your dedication, your zeal, care and love thrown away”, added the singer, also moving the program’s presenter.

For journalist Maurício Stycer, television critic and master in sociology from the University of São Paulo (USP), the decision to speak openly about the subject on the leading broadcaster may have been thought out in advance.

“The facts that led to the outburst (the betrayal) are certainly real, but the way to communicate this must have been planned,” says Stycer.

“It wasn’t a sudden outburst, there was a text. And open television and a program like Ana Maria Braga’s is seen as a good place for this type of situation. It’s a way of also showing that open TV is strong and very much alive “, assesses the specialist.

Stycer emphasizes that artists’ outbursts about their personal lives have existed for decades. “But in the past it didn’t have the reach it has today on social media. She talked about Ana Maria and 15 seconds later there was a video on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. Today’s universe has amplified all of this”, he points out.

MARKETING STRATEGY?

On the networks, many sympathized with the singer’s outburst. But others also accused her of creating a marketing strategy behind the difficult personal situation to further promote the artist.

Luísa’s manager for six years, Fátima Pissarra denies that there was any marketing strategy behind Sonza’s outburst and states that thinking that about this episode “gets to be cruel”.

“It’s so offensive to think that a 25-year-old girl will have a marketing strategy behind a betrayal by a boyfriend for whom she wrote a song in tribute. It’s belittling the role of both the artist and even him, who received this song “, says Pissarra, who is one of the owners of Mynd.

“There is no type of strategy in any format that will generate any suffering for the artist. Ever. This does not exist within Mynd”, he adds.

Pissarra claims that the singer’s statement on national television was a way to avoid controversy or lies surrounding the end of the relationship.

“There are a lot of confabulations about subjects that involve celebrities and involve a lot of fake news. So, by talking about some subject that generates fake news openly on a television program, you are supposedly eliminating all these misleading and lying sources on that particular subject in one fell swoop. “, he tells BBC News Brasil.

“I’m absolutely sure and I can speak on Luísa’s behalf: she would have preferred anything and not to have gone through this type of betrayal from a person with whom she was very much in love and made such a declaration of love”, he adds.

The artist’s manager emphasizes that the singer told about her ex-boyfriend’s betrayal to show other women that it is possible to end a relationship after going through a situation like this.

“This is a very serious matter. It’s Luísa’s flag. As she said in Ana Maria Braga, there are histories of betrayals in her family and even among friends. And she was always against these women remaining married even though they knew they were being betrayed. And She (Luísa) decided not to be one of those people who are so many in Brazil”, he says.

The report sought out Chico Moedas’ team to comment on the repercussion of the case, but did not receive a response until the conclusion of this text.

This text was originally published here.