Ivete Sangalo is ready to conquer America with her untiring Brazilian party music.
The 41-year-old Brazilian Axé and MPB singer, songwriter, actress and television host is preparing to celebrate her 20-year music career with a five-city U.S. tour that will take her to the West Coast for the first time.
Sangalo, known for her all-singing, all-dancing, high-energy extravaganzas that come as close to Brazil’s over-the-top Carnival celebrations as one can get, expects to see more than a few “gringos” during her tour, thanks to her growing reputation among non-Brazilians.
“My public is growing outside of Brazil. Every time I play out of the country there are more and more local people, thanks to all the Brazilians who act as ambassadors for my music,” said Sangalo, who will kick off her Real Fantasia Tour 2013 on August 9 in Oakland, Calif. She’ll also visit Los Angeles; Lynn, Mass.; and Newark, N.J., before wrapping in Miami on Aug. 17.
“I’m going to places I’ve never performed before so I have to cure a lot of homesickness. I have to give the fans what they like,” said Sangalo in a phone interview from her home in Salvador, Bahia.
In Brazil, Sangalo is the undisputed Queen of Axe (ah-SHAY) music – a doubled-timed party sound that fuses Brazilian rhythms like samba and frevo with rock, reggae and calypso styles. It is the sound of Bahia’s weeklong Carnival- which differs from the better known blow-out in Rio where samba is king – and Sangalo, a statuesque brunette with a voice like a trumpet, reigns over it, singing from the top of a huge sound truck for six hours or more at a stretch.
“My music reaches a lot of different (people),” Sangalo said.
The Latin Grammy winner released the album Real Fantasia last year.
