Pop music is a mirror of its time. In Brazil, it’s hard not to connect the best music released in 2024 with the themes that dominated politics, culture, and social media discussions throughout the year.
This was the year when Black Consciousness Day became a holiday across all Brazilian states, and pop music played the same tune. Many of 2024’s finest albums celebrated Black culture and ancestry, weaving stories of pride and joy into the soundscape of contemporary Brazil. Artists like Cristal and Os Garotin reinvented traditions for a new generation, while others like Sued Nunes, Melly, and Yan Cloud present new ideas of what incorporating African ancestrality into pop might sound like.
2024 also turned Brazil’s gaze northward, literally. The heart and home of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and the largest number of indigenous groups, the secularly overlooked Northern region finally saw its culture shining through a wider array of lights. What began with reality show stars like Isabelle Nogueira and Alane Dias showcasing Parintins’ and carimbó culture on national TV became a broader cultural shift. Still reaping the fruits from the 2023 revival of Joelma’s 2016 track “Voando pro Pará”, Northern Brazil’s rhythms and Indigenous voices enriched the year’s most memorable pop music.
In a country as complex and diverse as Brazil, it’s only right that a music list can function almost as a lesson on geography, history, or politics as well. But pop music doesn’t always wear a clear critical message on its sleeve. It doesn’t need to. Pop artists from marginalized groups are also allowed to laugh despite the hardships and cry for reasons unrelated to their survival. Liniker, who made history in 2022 as the first trans artist to win a Latin Grammy, captivated Brazil once more in 2024, making people dance and dream to the passionate lyricism of Caju. In 2024, the universal subject sang through the body of a Black transwoman.
The best Brazilian pop albums of 2024 are a whole lot of beauty and fun.
15. Melly — Amaríssima (Som Livre)
Along with Rio de Janeiro’s samba, the State of Bahia has been at the front line of Brazil’s tradition of incorporating elements of the country’s African ancestry into music, synthesized in the axé genre. For the new generation of Bahia talents, Melly is among those crafting Brazil’s own breed of modern R&B. Her first album, Amaríssima, might be too slow and introspective to fit neatly into the pop mold but tracks like “Cacau” and “Rio Vermelho” show Melly’s knack for pop melodies. The smoothness she blends R&B, trap, pagodão baiano, and ijexá cannot be dismissed.
14. Barro — Língua (Zelo + Barro)
After spending six years writing and producing for other artists, Barro mastered his craft in a diverse spectrum of rhythms. Língua, his second studio album, compiles a multitude of pop languages he is fluent in. These go from reggae (“Vira lata caramelo”) to funk (“Me ter”) to samba (“Se for pra ver”), to axé (“Minha língua”, “Cobra corta caminho”), and even a fusion of synthpop, reggaeton and Afrobeats (“Deixa acender”). The common denominator is a quiet, confessional atmosphere, matched by low-range vocals. While the production makes Língua enjoyable from beginning to end, the melodies and lyrics leave no room for doubt that Barro is a songwriter at heart.
13. UANA — Megalomania (Fábrica Estúdios)
The heavy walls of sound of Northeastern brega funk are usually not met with vocals as clean and sweet as UANA’s. Curiously, the formula works in Megalomania — but not without a softening of the genre’s typical production, building on the trend popularized by artists like Duda Beat. UANA also has adventures in hip-hop/trap (“Megalomania” and “Gulosa”) and house (“Kriptonita”). While not all tracks are equally memorable, the best ones (“Eu tenho o molho”, “Esquina”, “À primeira vista”) shows that there’s a nice path ahead of UANA.
12. Totô de Babalong — Pescoço salgado (Ala Comunicação e Cultura)
Totô de Babalong is an engaging persona. Pescoço salgado is not his first album, but it works as an excellent calling card for him. With humorous lyrics that hint at social media jargon and a sugar-coated edge production, the album reinterprets peripheric genres like piseiro through references and aesthetics that shout out to international pop culture — like the allusion to E. L. James’ “Fifty Shades of Grey” in “Cinquenta tons de pinga”, and its bachata beats.
There’s a ringing latinity to Pescoço salgado, with its apex in the bachata “Jogo de Louça”. Yet, the album unmistakably carries the imprint of bedroom pop and American pop standards. “Beyblade” sounds like Lana Del Rey meets Barões da Pisadinha. “Às avessas por você” uses a doo-wop tailored chorus melody to intonate a funny, sassy lyric. These are wild mixes, but Babalong surfs on the deliberate comicness of it all.
11. Yan Cloud — AFROSSA (Independent)
The borrowing of the lines between singing and rapping has birthed a category of Brazilian artists that wander invariably along hip-hop and pop, such as Flora Matos and Yago Oproprio. Yan Cloud leans towards pop in AFROSSA. He embraces trap (“ESCURO”) and rap (“XIU!”), but he’s also committed to making danceable, catchy songs (“Nêga”, “Mexe”) within the pop mold. For that, he bets on Afrobeats from the perspective of an artist hailing from Bahia, the Brazilian state most deeply rooted in Black and African heritage. AFROSSA reflects how African heritage has long been woven into Brazil’s musical fabric and how it has evolved to generate and dialogue with new rhythms.
10. Cristal — EPIFANIA (CRISTAL)
Rapper and singer Cristal delivers a heartfelt homage to Brazilian Black music and 1970s funk and soul on EPIFANIA. The album unfolds like a curated Broadway musical, featuring grandiose instrumentals and assertive, proclamation-like lyrics like “Obrigada Black”. Cristal nods to Brazilian Black icons like Tony Tornado in “Corre”, and combines her modern rapping style to soulful ballads like “Redial”.
If any time is timely for Brazil to reflect on its Blackness, Cristal’s tribute is particularly poignant considering her roots in southern Brazil, a region often defined by its European ancestry rather than its Black heritage. Cristal reclaims and celebrates Southern Blackness with power and intention, through herself but also spotlighting other Black Southern names like reggae singer Paulo Dionísio, who’s featured in “Isso é o que eu soul”.
9. Joyce Alane — Tudo é minha culpa
Genre-wise, Tudo é minha culpa stays within the familiar ground of other artists (including many inf this list): a pop stylization of forró, piseiro, pagode, and brega, where batuque and percussions coexist with synthesizers. However, Joyce Alane’s interpretation makes the record stand out. The angsty lyrics are a repeated motif across all tracks; Alane sings them sweetly but assertively. For example, “Agulha do palheiro” is a Sia-like composition sung with a Brazilian Northeastern accent. When she’s collaborating with other artists (like Priscila Senna in “Só não fale” and ÀTTØØXXÁ in “Pra variar”), her contrasting tone adds layers to the drama.