Nonô at SXSW London. Photographer: Jonas Termansen
Brazilian musician Nonô is leaving London after 10 years – I caught up with her before she leaves for Miami, as she played her sold out farewell London shows at SXSW London and the Star in Shoreditch. After a tragic ATV accident last year, and brain surgery with a 5% change of survival, she’s fought her way back to be better than ever in the Americas.
Watch the full interview on YouTube.
Nonô, you almost died last year, how has that changed you and your music?
The almost-death experience made me really value life more, and there was so much stress that I was putting into things that were not worth stressing over. It allowed me to be a lot more free with my music, it allowed me to be a lot more happier. Whenever I’m happy, I can transmit that to the stage and the audience – and that’s all I wanna do: I wanna bring people joy. So I guess the accident really just helped me value things for real.
You have had a very long career in music – at least 12 years. Your music has really changed throughout the times – do you feel you have cracked the code with your new music?
Good question! I think we need to take music like life. You crack a little bit of a chapter, but we’re ever-evolving, you know? So you can’t say you’ll be one thing forever, because we’re always changing, we’re always trying to be better. Music has influences from everywhere. So I cracked my moment right now, which is more electronic Brazilian music
Yeah because you switched from English to Portuguese – and somehow you made a Danish guy sing in Portuguese at your shows – and I don’t even speak the language! And I’m like ‘Diga Me, Alô!’ – How do you come up with those melodies?
You know it’s funny – and thank you so much, it’s an honor that you actually sing the songs and know the lyrics. It’s because, for me, melody is key. I really want it to be catchy, I really want people to sing along to it, and having easy sounds that are more global. I grew up singing songs in Portuguese, but I was also singing a lot of songs in English, copying the sounds even though I did not always understand the language. I was just copying the sounds. So for me, I guess having the crunchy sounds, e.g. ‘Alô! Onde tu tá, onde tu tá‘ is very rhythmic and I like it.
I feel that you’re doing a bit of ‘Portuglish‘ music, in the sense that yes it’s Portuguese, but there are words in English that means that gringos like me can buy into it and sing along on a few phrases, at least.
I love being able to mix those two languages, because it makes it more interesting and more global.
When you’re on stage, what’s your big performance tip?
I would say the biggest performance tip is: When I started doing shows and everything, I was so focused on very pretty singing. I came from The Voice, I did Youtube videos, and everything had to be really good professional singing. Nowadays I realize that people will remember the way you made them feel – and the energy that you employ. It’s like, you can sing beautifully, but if you hit those high notes and don’t make a move, they’re gonna be like ‘It was good, but you know she’s just another person who is singing nice.’ But if you can get them to move, that would be the key.
I shaked my ass tonight!
Yeaaah! You sure did, yeah!
You’re very good at setting expectations for people, you should be feeling feel this, you should be dancing now, bring out all of your camera lights. Now you’re about to move to Miami, to Brazil. How do you feel after your goodbye show?
I am feeling really emotional. I’m really happy I decided to do one last show as a resident here in London. To me it’s an honor to be with people like yourself, and people that like the songs. I’m feeling a sense of job-well-done. London has been such a beautiful chapter in my life, and right now it’s time to try a new thing. Obviously I love this city, it’s my home as well. So now, I welcome the new.
That’s fantastic, this was a heck of a goodbye show. It’s been an honor to interview you.
Thank you so much.
We gotta party in Miami, Brazil, in Rio.
In Rio, in Los Angeles.
And in Copenhagen.
In Copenhagen! Imma do Denmark! World tour.
Honestly, I don’t think the Danes are ready for you.
You heard it here first, you heard it here first. The Danish are not ready. We are invading.
We’re invading. The Portuguese in Denmark.
Hahaha, thank you so much Jonas, thank you.
Check out Nonô’s many iconic music videos on YouTube – don’t miss her latest single Joga Bonito, a short super catch blast of Brazilian energy – or Alô from the official F1 24 soundtrack!
