Pabllo Vittar

Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar performs a flashy, ambitious mixture of dance-pop/EDM and numerous styles from her home country, including tecnobrega, forró eletrônico, and funk carioca. An international star and LGBTQIA+ icon, she has made appearances at numerous drag competitions, pride parades, and award shows, and collaborated with musicians like Thalía, Major Lazer, Charli XCX, Lady Gaga, and many others. All four of her studio albums, from Vai Passar Mal (2017) to Batidão Tropical (2021), have been certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum in Brazil; a live album, I Am Pabllo, appeared in late 2021.
Pabllo Vittar is the on-stage alter ego of Phabullo Rodrigues da Silva. Born in 1993 and brought up in the island city of São Luís, capital of the northern state of Maranhão, she was bullied as a child for her voice and looks, later coming out as gay. Inspired to become a singer by divas such as Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer, and Whitney Houston, and Brazilian legends Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, she began performing and songwriting in her teens. Developing an interest in drag after seeing RuPaul’s Drag Race on TV, she borrowed her sister’s makeup and started dressing up. She did her first performances in city bars, initially under the name Pabllo Knowles in homage to Beyoncé, but later changed it for fear of getting sued. In 2014 she appeared on local TV with a note-perfect rendition of Houston’s difficult “I Have Nothing,” which launched her on the path to fame.
Pabllo Vittar began recording her own material, becoming a well-known personality on video streaming networks and social media, with her hit “Open Bar” (a Portuguese-language version of Major Lazer’s “Lean On”) surpassing one million views. She signed with Sony and in 2017 released her debut album, Vai Passar Mal (“You Are Going to Be Sick”), which combined electronic dance-pop with a multitude of niche Brazilian genres such as forró, funk carioca, tecnobrega, and axé. The album featured the hits “K.O.” and “Corpo Sensual” (featuring Mateus Carrilho), both of which have accumulated hundreds of millions of YouTube views. The same year, Vittar collaborated with Major Lazer and Anitta on the hit “Sua Cara.”
Her second album, Não para Não (“No, Don’t Stop”), released in 2018, saw her tour internationally and become even better known. With its lively character and self-affirming, sexually frank lyrics, her music became a rallying point for Brazil’s increasingly marginalized LGBTQIA+ community. Vittar’s third album, 111, issued in 2020, featured spots from Ivete Sangalo, Thalía, and Charli XCX; a remix companion, 111 Deluxe, followed later in the year. Fourth studio album Batidão Tropical and live recording I Am Pabllo both arrived in 2021; additionally, Vittar appeared on Lady Gaga’s remix album Dawn of Chromatica. In 2022, Vittar released “Follow Me” (with Rina Sawayama) and “Volta Pra Ficar” (with Lukinhas). ~ John D. Buchanan & Paul Simpson