Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
Iggy Azalea’s career may be looking pretty unsalvageable right now, but that’s what makes her choice to feature Anitta on her make-or-break new single Switch so interesting. Anitta is a major star in her home country of Brazil with a large social media following, but hasn’t achieved much chart success elsewhere in Latin America, let alone the rest of the world. Is Iggy using her to get into the Brazilian market, or is Anitta being positioned as a potential crossover artist? Although she’s signed to Warner Music in Brazil, there’s no news of a planned US launch to be found, but it does feel like time is ripe for a new female Latin pop star to break through. Anitta’s qualifications for the position include winning Best Brazilian Act at the MTV Europe Awards (Brazil is in Europe now??) for the last three years, and performing at the Olympic opening ceremony in Rio. She has collaborated with big names in Latin America such as Maluma and J Balvin, while her own single Bang has almost 300 million YouTube views.