Page 32 - Zone Magazine Issue 020

WHATS HAPPENING IN BRAZIL?
2018: the promise of an excellent year for Brazilian electronic music
razil has been consuming foreign productions and, manly, the local ones. The music genre that currently reigns in Brazil is ‘sertanejo’ – a Brazilian musical style often associated to the people who live in the
countryside and which occupied 9 positions out of the Top 10 most-played songs on Brazilian radios in 2017. Another strong musical genre in the country is funk - coming from the slums of the state of Rio de Janeiro. However, it is true that electronic music has earned more and more space in Brazil. The program of the main festivals has guaranteed the electronic presence in the main lineup. Thereby, producers of the Brazilian electronic scene are standing out and exporting their productions world-wide.
Currently, the production of electronic music has generated great hits in Brazil when being mixed with the main local names. Like the North American collective Major Lazer, which brings together the musical producers Diplo, Jillionaire and Walshy Fire, and together with funk singer Anitta and singer and drag queen Pablo Vittar - voices who dominated the Brazilian summer 2018 - recorded the song Sua Cara, success with over 355 million views on Youtube.
However, seven years ago, electronic music entered the most popular celebration in the country, the Carnival, known for its sounds such as samba, frevo and axé, genuinely Brazilian rhythms which are characteristic of the festivities. Considered to be the largest popular street festival of the world, Salvador’s Carnival happens in the northeast region of the country and has already received famous names such as the DJs Armin Van Buuren, Robin Schulz, and David Guetta.
Those artists also toured extensively in Brazil, and attended important national electronic music festivals such as Ultra Music Brasil and Tomorrowland BR. However, the Brazilian electronic scene is not only made up of foreign names. In 2017, showing the strength of local production, Brazilians guaranteed their names
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