April 28, 2022

09:04

Ívina Garcia – From Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The singer and songwriter Karen Francis from Amazonas will represent the state in one of the biggest festivals in the world. With its first edition in Brazil, the Primavera Sound, released the line-up on the afternoon of Wednesday, 27. Besides Karen Francis, the list includes other big names in world music. The shows will take place at Anhembi District, in São Paulo, between October 31st and November 6th.

“Until now I am trying to digest, because this is a reflection of where my work is coming from. And it made me think, a retrospective went through my head of how hard I work and how hard I work for my art to make sense to someone,” Karen told CENARIUM, about the feeling of receiving the invitation to participate in the festival.

Born in Maués, countryside of Amazonas, Karen was raised in Manaus and brings in her music the R&B rhythm. With a powerful voice and musicality that unites black and African roots and rap, gospel and afrobeat influences, the singer intends to take all her blackness to the stage.

“I think that my ancestral footprint, both as a northerner and as a black woman in the Amazon, here being a place that usually denies its origins and has a historical erasure of this ancestry. I can’t take this out of my speech and my show, this is registered in my sound, in my features, and in my presence,” she explained.

Festival’s Schedule

As attraction of the “Primavera na Cidade” line-up, Karen will go on stage on October 31. The Primavera Sound São Paulo line-up also includes big names like Arctic Monkeys, Björk, Gal Costa, Travis Scott, Lorde, among others. The complete list of attractions is available on the festival’s website and social networks.

“I felt very honored to know that my work is reaching so far, in the ears of people who don’t know me personally, but who are somehow being affected by me and what I’m doing. And I would really like these people to look and pay attention to what we [people from the north] are talking about, what we are doing, what we are denouncing,” she says.

In the repertoire, the artist has the EP “Acontecer” (2018) and its re-release, “Acontecer – Ao Vivo” (2021), and the single “Confissão”, released in December 2021 with the participation of rapper Anna Suav. The track was produced within the programming of the Se Rasgum Amazônia Legal Selectives, of the Se Rasgum Festival (PA), and is the first single from Karen’s debut album, which should be released later this year.

Tickets for the festival are on sale at the online ticket office or at the box office of Morumbi Stadium. Ticket prices range from R$410 to R$1,400 reais, and some lots are already sold out.