If You Don’t Know Anitta from Brazil, You’re About To

Saturday Night Live might be over 50 years old, but it’s still breaking new ground. Its latest first: Anitta will be its musical guest on April 11, the first Brazilian headliner in SNL history.

One of Brazil’s most prominent artists, Anitta already boasts a massive fanbase in the US, with a song on the soundtrack of the most recent iteration of Charlie’s Angels and 2020’s smash hit, “Me Gusta,” a collab with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers and the ubiquitous Cardi B. But a turn on the stage of Studio 8H has the power to place an artist firmly in the mind of the mainstream. (Admit it, did you know who Morgan Wallen was before he briefly left God’s country to appear on the show?)

Want to bone up on Anitta before episode 17 of Saturday Night Live‘s 51st season, which is hosted by Coleman Domingo? Or have you already watched the April 11 SNL and are eager to learn more? In either case, read on to fulfill your pressing Anitta needs.

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Anitta’s singing career began at age 8

Born Larissa de Macedo Machado in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Honório Gurgel, Anitta started singing as an 8-year-old member of her parish church. By age 11, she was also studying English and dance, but then her studies took a more vocational bent, as she graduated with a public administration certificate. But by 2013, when she was just 20, the turned back to the arts, winning a career-boosting “Best New Artist” award from the São Paulo Association of Critics.

Anitta’s name didn’t always have two “ts”

Anitta chose her stage name after watching 2001 TV series Presença de Anita, about a seductive teen (the titular Anita) at the center of a deadly love triangle. Anita “could be sexy without looking vulgar; girl and woman at the same time,” Anitta said of the character.

After beginning her career as “Anita,” she changed her moniker to “Anitta” soon after she was discovered on YouTube by record producer Renato Azevedo. That two-t name was firmly in place by 2013, when her single, “Meiga e Abusada,” became one of the most requested songs for radio stations across Brazil. That same year, the video for her song ”Show das Poderosas” became YouTube’s most watched music video in the entire country of Brazil.

You probably saw Anitta at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Anitta continued to crank out hits between 2013 and 2016, and also acted onscreen in projects including Didi e o Segredo dos Anjos. In 2016 she took a gig hosting the third season of cable variety show Música Boa Ao Vivo, but another job that year catapulted her onto the global stage: Alongside fellow Brazilian artists Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, she performed at the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Summer Olympics, which were held in Rio. Hollywood talent agencies came calling shortly thereafter, and by the end of the year she’d claimed the Best Brazilian Act award at the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Anitta’s been singing in English for almost a decade

Her first English single, 2017’s “Switch”, was a collaboration with Australian rapper Iggy Azalea (of “Fancy” fame). That same year, Major Lazer dropped a revamped version of her single, “Sua Cara,” on their fourth EP. It was an international smash, and the first Portuguese-language song to chart on Billboard‘s Dance/Electronic list. By 2020, she’d been signed by Warner Records’ US label; later that year, she released Cardi B collab “Me Gusta,” which topped the charts in the US and 87 other countries.

By 2022, Anitta was everywhere

Things hit the next level for Anitta in 2022, when she moved to Sony Music Publishing. Her single “Envolver” made her the first Brazilian artist to top Spotify’s Global Top 200, and she cracked the platform’s one-day streaming record that March. That same month, she joined Miley Cyrus at Lollapalooza, a performance that ended up on Attention: Miley Live. In April, she was the first Brazilian artist to perform on the main stage at Coachella; in May she was the female lead in the video for Jack Harlow’s hit “First Class.” By the end of the year, she’d cemented her international stardom with a figure at Madame Tussauds New York and an MTV Video Music Awards trophy, among other accomplishments.

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Anitta and Madonna’s paths seem mystically intertwined

Not only did Anitta collaborate with Madonna on the Madame X track “Faz Gostoso,” she also joined the Queen of Pop onstage in Rio to perform “Vogue” in 2024. But perhaps most significantly, Anitta faced controversy after she showcased practices from her Afro-Brazilian faith, Candomblé, in the video for 2024 single “Aceita.”

“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 believe in the devil … I believe we all have the power to manifest the divine and the devil in us,” she told the Associated Press of the conflict, which cost her a reported 300,000 social media followers.

“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,” she concluded. Sound familiar?

Want even more Anitta? There’s a documentary for that.

If Anitta’s performances on SNL turned you on to the singer, there’s another treat in store: Larissa: The Other Side of Anitta dropped on Netflix last year. The revealing look at the artist debuted at the top of the streaming service’s charts across Brazil and Portugal in 2025, and hit Netflix’s global Top 10 for non-English language films the week of its release. After her April 11 appearance on Saturday Night Live, we should probably expect a similar spike.