Liniker - Freedom through Art - Article

Letter From Barcelona

I want to credit my old friend, photographer, and music wanderer Fernando Florit, who is contributing to CM Music from Barcelona. He recently introduced me to the music of a young Brazilian singer whose audience is growing worldwide. Thanks to her excellent music performance and courage as a transgender woman facing one of the world’s most LGTB hate crime-affected countries.

Liniker Barros is the lead singer of Brazil’s samba and soul group, “Liniker e os Caramelows. “Her intense voice has sprung out from São Paulo’s city of Araraquara, a place far from a haven for a black transgender woman such as herself. However, today she is a rising star in Brazil and overseas.

I heard Liniker’s concert via an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert on YouTube. I loved her music because it was like Brazilian Soul and Bossa all meshed together in a way that sounded like one concise new genre rooted in the melodic and rhythmic smoothness that only Brazilian musicians can create.

So when Fernando told me he would see her band live, I asked for his reflections and photos from the concert to create this post. And here is his account from the event.

Liniker e os Caramelows: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

July 25th. 2019

21:00 hrs.

Sala Apolo 2, Barcelona. Spain.

Liniker e os Caramelows

As soon as the musicians entered the stage, and the first soft chords began to spread and populate the atmosphere – I felt the same curiosity as when someone is about to open a present, having the certainty that the present will be an authentic moment of revelation.

The musicians and the audience were soon wrapped in an atmosphere created by an intimate theatrical illumination, in permanent dialogue with the music and finely tuned with it. A lighting concept was designed to accentuate Liniker’s gestural dramaturgy and invited the audience to flow in her universe, shared by the band.

Before finishing “Boca,” the song with which they opened the concert, the band had already touched the souls of everyone. Yet, they did so with a beating heart, the sincerity and comfort of those who feel at home.

Among the musicians, one could feel that type of connection that adds up, transcends the stage, and is contagious to the audience. It makes everyone participate in the experience, vibrating and flowing on the same frequency. With a name inspired by a football champ and a soul of a Diva, Liniker made her way through, involving everyone around in her enchanting journey.

She is in absolute control of a powerful, ancestral voice, with a personality that goes up and down from vigorous trebles to ripped low tones. Added to the shameless intensity in her singing is a cocktail that seduces and persuades.

Liniker e os Caramelows took us on an emotional journey through the sound of universal black roots with colorful brushstrokes of Soul, Funk, Blues, and Reggae. And it was all put together and mixed on a rich canvas of contemporary Brazilian sound. Based on contagious tropical percussion, sensual saxophone notes, emotional keyboards, and the personal, strong, and sincere voice of a human being paying the price of being black, poor, gay, and transgender in Brazil – and yet is transcending towards greatness.

All photos by Fernando Florit © Instagram: @fernandoflorit