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Marília Mendonça: the singer who rocked Brazil

From the viola circles, back in 1929, until it became the national craze it is today, many women have already climbed onto the stages, releasing their voices in the sertanejo. Inezita Barroso, Sisters Galvão, Roberta and Sula Miranda are among them, and they made history on radio stations in Brazil, achieving prominence in an environment dominated almost exclusively by men.

But it was the birth of “feminejo”, already in this decade, that truly highlighted the name of women within the universe of country music. Born in Cristianópolis, in Goiás, Marília Mendonça can be considered the precursor of this movement and proof that they and the countryman also have a place.

It is such a successful career that the “Queen of Suffering” is the holder of a record that until 2020 was unimaginable: the largest audience during a live broadcast on the YouTube channel worldwide. There were 3.31 million viewers watching Marília sing her loves and loves on the platform – a number that surpasses the lives of globally known names, such as the Korean group BTS or the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

The “Miss”, as her fans also called her, was just 26 years old and had a relatively short but meteoric career. The first EP was released in 2015 and in the following year, she received the triple platinum certificate for the 240 thousand copies sold of the DVD of the same name. The single “Infiel” stuck in the minds of passionate people from the countryside (and even those who weren’t adept at the rhythm) and became one of the most played songs in Brazil, giving the singer immense national visibility.

The interpreter brought to the music scene a different vision from what men of her generation were used to singing with the university sertanejo: subjects that revolved around cachaça, women and betrayals, putting women always in the background or, often, like the great villain of an infidelity. Marília did exactly the opposite and showed that they also have their desires and space to be protagonists.

Female power

The empowerment, by the way, that was born there was not seen by the “Queen of Suffering” as a way of claiming feminism. Marília, on more than one occasion, stated that she never called herself a feminist and if her lyrics fit this empowerment, it was a coincidence, nothing deliberate.

“I’m just a woman who stands for equality by merit. We are neither better nor worse than men. We are capable.”

At the beginning of his career, he even said that machismo was not just in the backlands, but rooted throughout the country and in various situations. She was never afraid to express her opinions and really wanted to sing her own story, as she couldn’t feel represented in the lyrics of the songs she heard.

Recall other accidents with Brazilian celebrities:

“I was never a princess, my relationships didn’t always work out. And I needed to hear someone speak.”

Another concept that Marília spread among fans was the union between women, sorority – a term that she herself refused to take possession of. For her, everyone has a duty to unite to achieve their goals.

“What I really dream is that women unite, that they never lower their heads”, he declared.

On stage, Marília also broke patterns in her looks and way of presenting herself. From the women dressed in boots, hats, plaid print and belt with huge buckle, she gave way to the country singer who wears fashionable clothes, with colors, short skirts, shine, dresses, sneakers and whatever else she felt comfortable wearing. .

Her banner has always been that “a woman can be whatever she wants”, which also explains the reason for turning her attention to the physical after proudly assuming her weight and body. She lost weight, put contact lenses in her teeth, underwent plastic surgery and was not afraid to joke: “I think they will take away my feminist card”.

Revolution in the backcountry universe

With only five years on the road, Marília Mendonça was nominated for 35 awards. He won 11, among them, one of the most important in music and his career, the Latin Grammy, in 2019.

The album “Todos os Cantos” was chosen as the Best of Country Music of that year, and it includes “Todo Mundo Vai Sufrer” or “Bem Pior Que Eu”, melodies with easy lyrics and astronomical numbers – together they add up to almost 1 billion views on the YouTube, a platform on which Marília had 22 million followers.

The Mistress was also the owner of the second highest rate among all country artists, second only to Gusttavo Lima. Recently, she had doubled the price for her shows, which went from R$250,000 to more than R$500,000 per performance.

Goiana’s meteoric success helped boost the careers of other female singers such as Simone and Simaria, Paula Mattos, Naiara Azevedo and exposed to the general public the female figure who was behind the lyrics of songs sung by other men like Jorge & Mateus ( “Wrong Way” and “Calm”), Cristiano Araújo (“I’m with her”), Cleber and Cauan (“Preference” and “It was That You Wanted”), Marcos and Fernando (“Nobody spoils”), César Menotti & Fabiano (“Toasting Failure”) and João Neto and Frederico (“My inheritance”).

Its presence in Brazilian music is undeniably a milestone for women, helping to amplify their voices, desires and yearnings in song lyrics that speak of love, passion, party, betrayal and even denouncing abusive relationships. With the single “Você Não Manda em Mim”, in partnership with Maiara and Maraísa, she wanted to help broaden the discussion on the topic – not by chance the song was released in the same period that the case of DJ Ivis’s aggression against her woman, Pamella Netherlands.

the fatal accident

However, his successful trajectory ended after a fatal accident took his life and that of three other passengers, as well as the crew, who were on the Beech Aircraft twin-engine plane, which fell into a waterfall in the Caratinga mountain range, in the interior of Minas Gerais, on Friday afternoon (5).

Before boarding the aircraft, Marília played a joke with the fans and called four of them to promote the single “Fã Clube”, a feat with Maiara and Maraísa, and highlighted by her as the first song without suffering of her career. “For those who say that Marília Mendonça doesn’t have love songs that don’t work out, that’s it”, she said.

The partnership and complicity with the pair of sisters is a long-standing one and they already knew each other even before their fame. At the beginning of their career, in 2016, the three released their first collaborative album entitled “ Agora é Que São Elas”. Two years later, they recorded part two of the same project and, in 2020, created “Patroas”, which intended to travel with shows in different parts of the country. It was the “Festival of the Mistresses”.

On Friday, the day of the accident, the three of them had two of the most played songs in Brazil: “Forget me if For Capable” and “Todo Mundo Menos Você”.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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