Blaya

Karla Rodrigues is born in Fortaleza in 1987, and comes to Portugal with only two months. The father pursued the dream of being a footballer and so lived in Mora, Moura, Quarteira, Castro Verde and Ferreira do Alentejo, where the family settled. Family and friends have treated her for Blaya since she was 14 years old. At 16 he moves to Sines and, at 19, to Lisbon.

Blaya returns with some regularity to Brazil to visit her family, almost all across the Atlantic. Enjoy the gastronomy, the coconut water and the warm weather and do not forget the indefinite promise to return to Brazil for the purpose of settling there.

In the days of mIRC he gets his nickname Dama, a name he used as an MC – he wrote and sang hip hop, something that in Alentejo did not have much output. The first rap lyrics and vocalizations, before starting to dance, were very underground – there were no women singing in the time of rap-specific minivivals, ‘a man’s world’. Since then the world has changed.

At the Festival Músicas do Mundo, she attends two of the first Buraka Som Sistema (BSS) concerts – in Porto Covo and Sines. Later Blaya has been invited by Branko, Riot, Conductor and Kalaf to join the BSS in 2008 and has participated extensively in producing the albums “Komba” (2011) and “Buraka” (2014) and adapting previous record hits in shows. all over the world.

With the BSS, Blaya has toured many days in a row and had little rest. At this stage, she remembers the performance in the original Rock in Rio where she had a hotel, but preferred to sleep at her sister’s house in a Rio de Janeiro slum; or the performance at the Baía das Gatas Festival in Cape Verde, where they performed after a blank night at 8 am.

In July 2016, with a concert at Torre de Belém witnessed by thousands of people, the BSS put an end to their career indefinitely. Prior to that, Blaya collaborated with dEUS’s Tom Barman on the Magnus project and in 2013 releases a six-track, two-remix album that he performs live on the NOS Alive Clubbing stage.

In 2017 he signs for RedMojo and begins to idealize the new project with his management. It is at this stage that he composes themes for the new album to be edited during 2018, with the collaboration of MC Zuka, Kaysha, Laton, Ella Nor or Virgul. The album was composed, produced and recorded at the studios of its label and producer, RedMojo, in Paço D’Arcos, between September and November 2017. The Brazilian roots are very present and Blaya, in the Lusophone scope, points Brazil as a favorite place. for a tour and, who knows, recording a live album. As it should be, the first video from the hit song “Faz Gostoso” is full of colors and dances, defined by Blaya herself as ‘euro favela funk’.

The first single, “Faz Gostoso”, is being a tremendous success, surpassing the 29 million plays mark on YouTube and having topped all the bestselling and streaming platforms, reaching number one on Spotify and the chart. iTunes sales. Blaya was the first Portuguese woman to reach Spotify number one of the 50 most played songs in Portugal.

So far 4 more singles have been edited, “Vem na Vibe”, “Má Vida”, “Primeira Batida” and “Eu Avisei”. In a mind-blowing year Blaya still made the generic for TVI’s soap opera “Valor da Vida”.

Until the album’s release, referred to as a mix of multiple Lusophone influences from family, BSS and travel around the world, ‘dance lessons’ will be released in the original ‘dance video’ format, not to be confused with most common lyric videos. Blaya yearns for women’s liberation from their bodies through dance