Anitta won her first Latin Grammy Thursday night in Las Vegas, and she used the moment to correct the record on two things: who counts as Latin America, and whose faith gets respected.
The Brazilian superstar took best Portuguese-language contemporary pop album for EQUILIBRIVM, the album she released in April. Accepting the award, she spoke in Spanish to a room built largely around Spanish-language music.
"It's very important that we all understand that Latin America is all of the countries in Latin America, not only the ones that speak Spanish," she said, according to Brazilian press translations of the speech. "Brazil is part of this too."
She noted it was the first time a Brazilian category had been presented in that part of the ceremony, and said that while language divides the region, its shared culture could unite it.
'Laroyê, Exu!': Anitta puts Afro-Brazilian faith center stage
Anitta then turned to the spiritual root of the album. She described EQUILIBRIVM as the product of a personal transformation and a spiritual journey that made her question whether money, fame and success were all that mattered, and said the record became a revolution of religion and faith as well.
She tied it directly to Afro-Brazilian religion. For many years, she said, Black culture was erased in Brazil, and its religion and its faith could never be spoken about in public. She closed the speech with "Laroyê, Exu!", the traditional greeting to Exu, the orixá of the crossroads and communication in Candomblé and Umbanda.
In Brazil, those words carry weight. Practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions, which trace back to the Yoruba and other West African peoples brought to Brazil in bondage, still face attacks on their terreiros, or houses of worship, and open hostility. Anitta has spoken publicly about her own practice, and she gave that faith a global stage on music's biggest Latin night.
The win also lands on an old fault line. Brazil is the largest country in Latin America, yet its artists have long been pushed to record in Spanish to be heard in the Latin market. Anitta did exactly that on her way to global fame. With a Portuguese-language album rooted in Afro-Brazilian faith, she won on her own terms.
For more from the night, read Cup of Soul's Latin Grammys 2026 winners report and our coverage of Anitta as Grande Rio's new rainha de bateria.
