5 Things To Know About Anitta, Olympic Opening Ceremony Performer

Brazilian singer Anitta never imagined she’d perform at the Summer Olympics in her hometown of Rio, but she did. The star joined singers Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, the three performers even showed a bit of their best Samba moves. “I come from the ghetto. No one there probably imagined I’d get this far,” she told Billboard. But the 23-year-old star beat the odds and gracefully performed at this year Olympic opening ceremony. 

She’s a rising pop star who is already making a name for herself in the United States. We went digging, and here are the five things that you need to know Anitta. 

1. She Got Sexy With Maluma: Collaborations can be magical, like this one. Their video is hot, like “Work” kind of hot with some undeniable chemistry. It was just released and in a week it has already generated over 11 million views on Vevo. The song “Sim Ou Não” features both English and Spanish lyrics. 

2. Remixed “Ginza”: Before working with Maluma, Anitta helped J Balvinremix his worldwide hit. 

3. She’s Her Own Manager: “I’ve been managing myself for some time now, and after accomplishing many goals here in Brazil, I knew it was time to make new contacts and do bigger things on an international level. So I started thinking about what my next step would be, did some research, and met with other people and artists in the industry,” she said. This is how the singer began the process of collaborating with the biggest names in Latin music. 

4. Surprise News: The news of her performance might have been the best birthday gift of her life. Her team texted her after her birthday dinner and told the star about her part in the opening ceremony. “I didn’t say this to a single person,” she said to BBC. Anitta was so excited that she wanted to keep that moment to herself for as long as possible. 

5. Her IG Game Is Strong: She’s quite the social butterfly, the Rio native has almost 15 million fans on Instagram and nearly 14 million on Facebook. Anitta shares videos of her performances, outfits and some behind-the-scenes looks at her latest photo shoots. 

We’re officially fans!