Bia Ferreira

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, anti-racisim activist and fierce defender of the LGBTQ2S+ community worldwide, Bia Ferreira defines her music as MMP: Música de Mulher Preta (Black Woman Music). Born in a rural town in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil to a family of evangelical missionaries, she studied at the Brazilian Music Conservatory where she learned to play dozens of different instruments as well as piano. At the age of 12, she says, she wrote her first song – a plea to God to “cure” her thoughts that she was a lesbian. That didn’t happen. 

By age 15, she had gotten involved in the Black women’s movement in Brazil, and in her 20s, she hitchhiked around the country, playing and selling her self-produced CD wherever she could. She then gained fame with the track “Cota Não é Esmola,” in which she sang about the importance of the quota system for Black people’s access to university. Her performance of the song on YouTube has had over 14 million views and the song’s lyrics became required reading for the University of Brasília’s entrance exam. 

She was nominated for the 2018 Women in Music Awards, and on her 2019 album, Igreja Lesbiteriana: Um Chamado, (Lesbitarian Church: A Calling), the messages are harnessed to  funky beats, reggae, and soul ballad grooves. -EL

SET TIMES TBC