Skip to content

Nick Jonas Returning to Broadway to Star in ‘The Last Five Years’ Revival

Search

Anitta Lost Over 300,000 Followers to ‘Prejudice’ Over Her Afro-Brazilian Faith

Anitta Lost Over 300,000 Followers to ‘Prejudice’ Over Her Afro-Brazilian Faith
Tomás Mier
By Tomás MierMay 25, 2024
Tomás Mier
See Full Bio

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.”

Most Popular

More Stories

Sabrina Carpenter Is Viscously Clever and Done With Love Triangles on ‘Short N’ Sweet’: 5 Takeaways

Sabrina Carpenter Is Viscously Clever and Done With Love Triangles on ‘Short N’ Sweet’: 5 Takeaways

After Sabrina Carpenter’s summer takeover with “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” the anticipation for Short n’ Sweet was at an all-time high. On her sixth album, the pop singer keeps the surprises coming as she delivers a masterclass in clever songwriting and hops between R&B and folk-pop with ease. Carpenter writes about the frustration of modern-day romance, all the while cementing herself as a pop classic. Here’s everything we gathered from the new project.

Please Please Please Don’t Underestimate Her Humor

Carpenter gave us a glimpse of her humor on singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” — she’s working late because she’s a singer; ceiling fans are a pretty great invention! But no one could have guessed how downright hilarious she is on Short n’ Sweet, delivering sugary quips like “The Lord forgot my gay awakenin’” (“Slim Pickins”) and “How’s the weather in your mother’s basement?” (“Needless to Say”). She’s also adorably nerdy, fretting about grammar (“This boy doesn’t even know/The difference between ‘there,’ ‘their’ and ‘they are!’”) and getting Shakespearian (“Where art thou? Why not uponeth me?”). On “Juno,” she even takes a subject as serious as pregnancy and twists it into a charming pop culture reference for the ages: “If you love me right, then who knows?/I might let you make me Juno.” It’s official: Do not underestimate Ms. Carpenter’s pen. — A.M.

Keep ReadingShow less
RFK Jr. Suspends Campaign, Endorses Trump

RFK Jr. Suspends Campaign, Endorses Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his 2024 presidential campaign, and according to a court filing in Pennsylvania on Friday will throw his weight behind former President Donald Trump.

Multiple news outlets reported on Wednesday that independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. was planning to drop out of the race and endorse Trump. He clarified at an event in Arizona on Friday that he is not terminating his campaign, only suspending it, and that his name will remain on the ballot in non-battleground states. He said that if enough people still vote for him and Trump and Kamala Harris tie in the Electoral College, he could still wind up in the White House.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Chicks’ ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’ Has Somehow Become a MAGA Anthem on TikTok

The Chicks’ ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’ Has Somehow Become a MAGA Anthem on TikTok

One little funny/bizarre/horrifying thing about the internet is the way it offers up everything and, in doing so, makes it possible to strip anything of its history. But to paraphrase Kamala Harris, you didn’t just fall out of the coconut tree. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you” — wise words worth heeding, especially for all the Trump voters and conservatives making TikToks with the Chicks’ “Not Ready to Make Nice.”

Over the past month or so, “Not Ready to Make Nice” has become an unexpected MAGA anthem of sorts, meant to express a certain rage at liberals supposedly telling conservatives what to do all the time (the past few Supreme Court terms notwithstanding, apparently). Young women especially have taken the song as a way to push back against the possibility of Harris becoming the first female president. 

Keep ReadingShow less
Sabrina Carpenter, Myke Towers, Cash Cobain, and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week

Sabrina Carpenter, Myke Towers, Cash Cobain, and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big new singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Sabrina Carpenter delivers her long-awaited debut Short ‘n Sweet, Myke Towers switches lanes with the help of Peso Pluma, and Cash Cobain moves drill music forward with a crossover hit. Plus, new music from Lainey Wilson, Blink182, and Coldplay.

Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Taste” (YouTube)

Keep ReadingShow less
Hear Blink-182 Have Fun While Complaining They Have ‘No Fun’ on New Songs

Hear Blink-182 Have Fun While Complaining They Have ‘No Fun’ on New Songs

Ahead of the release of One More Time … Part-2, Blink-182 have released two new charging pop-punk songs, “All in My Head” and “No Fun.” The updated album will come out Sept. 6.

On “All in My Head,” Mark Hoppus sings about how hard touring life is staying in “lonely hotel rooms, cum stains on the couch.” But for as gross and sad as that reads, the song itself is pretty fun. Hoppus and Tom DeLonge trade vocals on the chorus: “I’m moving on, I’m better now, I sleep alone,” Hoppus sings, while DeLonge counters about how he’s not giving up despite feeling like he’s not good enough and how it hurts getting up. All that leads to an existential crisis, “I’m freaking out, is it all in my head?”

Keep ReadingShow less