Biography - Singing her way up
Rhaissa Bittar spent her childhood singing on her purple plastic microphone. At 16 she participated in musicals and won two awards for best actress on the 17th Festival of Student Theater of the state of São Paulo, at the Tatuí (São Paulo) conservatory and at the 3rd Festival of Student Theater in SesI Sorocaba, São Paulo. At 17, she started singing chorinho and samba, and joined the group Coisa Linda de Deus that performed to the then American first lady Laura Bush during her visit to the NGO Aprendiz, created by journalist Gilberto Dimenstein. At the age of 18, she left to Taiwan, China, for a 1-year school exchange program in the country, where she took traditional Chinese music, singing and dance lessons.
When she came back to Brazil, she recorded a advertising campaign with the song Don’t Let me be Misunderstood. In face of the success of the video, which was available on the internet, Rhaissa was invited to perform in a fashion show, and had major repercussions on social networks. With the support of Panela Produtora, the young singer recorded her first album, Voilà, next to musicians such as Maurício Pereira, Nailor Proveta, Daniel Szafran, Michel Leme, Ricardo Herz, Banda Paralela, Lulinha Alencar, among others. The album has three tracks composed by the singer herself and mixes her Brazilian roots with references to jazz and popular Chinese music.
The Voilà album was released in 2010, moment when Rhaissa was nominated by the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper as a promising singer that is “still going to make some noise”. Since then, the Voilà concerts were performed throughout several stages in São Paulo, such as Sesc, Auditório Ibirapuera, Virada Cultural São Paulo, and especially in Pernambuco, where the concert came under the spotlight, performing on stages in Santander Cultural Center, in Espaço Muda and Muda FIG. While Voilà was being promoted, positive critics were published in the country’s main news media (Newspapers such as Folha de S. Paulo, Folha PE, Jornal do
photo Rodolfo Magalhães
Commercio, O Estado de S. Paulo; Web Portals MTV, G1, Uol, among other websites and blogs), apart from interviews on main national TV shows (Programa do Jô, da Globo PE, SP e BA News, and Record, with Heródoto Barbeiro as a special guest.
Rhaissa was then invited to take part of other projects, such as recording “Xote das Meninas” for an exhibit in tribute to Luiz Gonzaga called “Baixio dos Doidos” in Caruaru, in June, 2012. Apart from her, famous national singers such as Dominguinhos, Arnaldo Antunes, Otto and Naná Vasconcelos also participated in the tribute. In 2011, she recorded “O Vira” with a cover of the album known as “The Head Banquet” of the band Secos e Molhados; she also sang at Paulinho Moska’s concert at Tom Jazz in São Paulo, as well as at the Ao Rei do Baião concert, directed by Lirinha at Sesc Vila Mariana, in which singers Fagner, Siba, Felipe Cordeiro e Spok participated as special guests.
In 2015, Rhaissa premieres the show Matéria Estelar, from the album that was nominated for the best album at the Brazilian Music Award in 2014. The show went through Beijing and still runs Brazil. In this album, the singer gives life to objects such as a pear that is dumped by a caju; an unemployed phone book that finds an important job at Messias’ second-hand bookshop; and even the pearl earring of the girl depicted in Johanenes Vermeers’ masterpiece has its own voice in the apologues of the album. To give life to these stories, the singer has the special guest appearances of Spok Frevo Orquestra, singers Paulo Tatit, Paulinho Moska, Paulinho Boca de Cantor and Paulo Padilha, as well as musicians Nailor Proveta, Ricardo Herz, Lulinha Alencar, among other professionals.
Recently, released the single A Maior Ambição (Greatest Ambition) and the tour Silêncio (Silence). Do you know when you have your head in the clouds? Well, this is what talks about the new single of Rhaissa Bittar. The song, by Ze Manoel and Juliano Holanda, allied to the musical production of Raul Misturada, is an invitation to introspection. The track is available on all digital platforms and the tour has shows in Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Recife.
Have a great trip!