Brazilian Music

Monobloco is a Brazilian bloco, or street band, that plays during Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro and is also a professional touring show. Monobloco has become extremely popular among younger people because of its ‘fresh’ sound, playing a mix of various rhythms such as coco, ciranda, marcha, xote, samba-charme, and particularly samba-rock and funk, as well as carnaval sambas. It continues to grow in popularity each year, and can be seen as a symbol of the resurging popularity in Carnaval blocos in Rio de Janeiro.

Kaoma was a pop group made in France with the following members: Chyco Dru (bassist), Jacky Arconte (guitarist), Jean-Claude Bonaventure (producer and keyboardist), Michel Abihssira (drums and percussion), Fania (vocals), and Braz Loalwa (lead singer), Chico and Roberta (dancers). In 1989, they had a major chart-topping hit with their dance music single Lambada, a translation of Llorando se fue, which gave rise to the Lambada dance craze.

Olodum is a cultural group based out of Salvador, which is the capital city of the state of Bahia. They were recognized in the mainstream for this collaboration that they did with Michael Jackson in the 1990’s for his hit, “They Don’t Care About Us”.

Regina “Queen” Saraiva is a Brazilian-born eurodance vocolist that had several hits in 1997. She only had one big hit in the United States and it was called “Day by Day”, whcih peaked on the Billboard Charts at number 11.