Music Review: Anitta welcomes listeners into her 'Funk Generation' on new album
First, Anitta took over Brazil. Now, the world. The trilingual Brazilian pop star has returned with a new album, the club-to-bedroom ready “Funk Generation.” It is an infectious collection of dance songs celebrating a once maligned genre that also manages to experiment beyond its confines. But those searching for more mainstream pop music should look elsewhere.
Anitta is arguably Brazil’s most recognizable global pop singer since Astrud Gilberto sang “The Girl From Ipanema” nearly 60 years ago. (Fitting, because one of her biggest international hits, 2021’s “Girl From Rio,” interpolates the bossa nova classic. “Hot girls, where I’m from, we don’t look like models,” she sang. “Tan lines, big curves, and the energy glows.”)
When her 2022 album “Versions of Me” dropped, she was already a superstar known for meddling Brazilian sounds with a variance of genres: reggaetón, pop, yes, funk, but even pop-punk, lest anyone forget her boot-stomping “Boys Don’t Cry,” as inspired by Panic! At the Disco.