The singer Pabllo Vittar became, on Monday (29), the first Brazilian drag queen to have a song on the Billboard Hot 100 , main music chart of the U.S .
Pabllo Vittar was the third drag queen in the world – and the first outside the United States — to enter the main North American chart. Before her, only RuPaul (with “Supermodel (You Better Work)”, “Snapshot” and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with Elton John) and Chappell Roan (with “Pink Pony Club”, “Femininomenon”, “Casual”, “Red Wine Supernova”, “Hot to Go!” and “Good Luck, Babe!”) achieved the feat.
The song in question is “Alibi” a collaboration with Iranian singer Sevdaliza and French singer Yseult. The song ranked 95th in the rankings compiled by Luminate, which combines physical sales and streaming to determine the most listened to song in the United States that week.
The milestone reached by the drag queen from Maranhão is just another one obtained in the wake of the success of the song, which went viral on social media thanks to a sample of a traditional Colombian song (“Rosa”, by Totó La Momposina), used to compose its chorus (“Rosa, que linda eres”) and which serves as a “bed” for the repetition of “Alibi”, the title of the song.
“Alibi” also made Pabllo Vittar the first Brazilian drag queen to enter Spotify’s global top 50 and hold the third highest peak for a Brazilian artist on the platform, behind only Anitta, who reached the top with “Envolver” and eighth place with “Bellakeo”, in collaboration with Peso Pluma. The song is currently ranked 12th and has 98 million views on the platform; on YouTube, the video already has 43 million views.
Other Brazilian artists, such as Astrud Gilberto, Claudia Leitte, Anitta and Michel Teló, have also managed to enter the Billboard Hot 100. The record holder is Sérgio Mendes, owner of hits such as “Mas Que Nada” and “Chove Chuva”, with 14 songs; the peak was reached by Eumir Deodato with the version of “Also sprach Zarathustra”, a symphonic poem by Richard Strauss, used as the theme of “2001 – A Space Odyssey”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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