In 2022, Brazilian singer-songwriter Liniker turned the primary trans girl to win a Latin Grammy. Her seven nominations in 2025, together with these for album and file of the 12 months, may open extra doorways for Black and transgender artists in Latin music.
When the Latin Recording Academy introduced nominations for the twenty sixth Latin Grammy Awards final month, one title stood out above the remainder: Liniker.
The Brazilian singer-songwriter earned seven nods this 12 months, together with all three of the “Big Four” classes she was eligible for: album of the 12 months for “Caju,” file of the 12 months for “Ao Teu Lado” (with Amaro Freitas and Anavitória) and track of the 12 months for “Veludo Marrom.” The one Huge 4 class lacking from her slate this 12 months was greatest new artist.
She beforehand made historical past as the primary transgender girl to take house a Latin Grammy in 2022, when her 2021 LP “Indigo Borboleta Anil” received for MPB (musica widespread brasileira) album. Come this November, the Araraquara native is extra primed than ever to be on the heart of Latin music’s most prestigious stage.
Her 2024 sophomore solo album, “Caju” (or, “cashew”) has surpassed 262 million streams, and every monitor managed to land on Brazil’s Spotify Prime 200. She has collaborated with such icons as Gilberto Gil, and in 2023, was inducted into the Brazilian Academy of Tradition, assuming the chair as soon as held by samba legend Elza Soares.
Such accolades — honoring the technical and creative worth of her efficiency, songwriting and manufacturing — underscore how her music is shaping new Latin sounds, in addition to representing Brazil on a world scale and increasing inclusion in traditionally unique establishments.
Liniker has lengthy been clear that she desires to be identified first as a musician, whose artistry is rooted in love, intimacy and want. And but, her presence as a Black Brazilian trans girl on the forefront of Latin music carries an plain cultural weight.
In a world the place anti-Blackness and transphobia stay as entrenched as ever, her rise indicators each creative excellence and a profound cultural shift of the tales advised about Black and trans experiences. Alongside fellow gender nonconforming Brazilians like Linn da Quebrada and Urias, in addition to trans artists like Venezuelan musician and producer Arca, and Puerto Rican rapper Villano Antillano, Liniker is a part of a rising motion altering the conventions of Latin pop stardom.
Liniker’s path to this second has been marked by cycles of reinvention that maintain reality to her fashion and worldly imaginative and prescient as an artist and particular person. She first broke by with 2016’s “Remonta,” an album she recorded along with her former band Liniker e os Caramelows. A fearless mix of MPB (música widespread brasileira), soul and funk, the file stood out most in songs like “Zero” and “Tua” — which turned viral sensations. Her emotive alto would quickly carry nicely past Brazil’s borders; the band landed a coveted gig for NPR’s Tiny Desk collection in 2018.
Her 2021 solo debut, “Indigo Borboleta Anil,” expanded her palette to incorporate samba, bossa nova and R&B. Tracks like “Baby 95”, “Lili”, and “Psiu” additionally showcased her versatility as a songwriter, who writes about receiving and being in love, embracing and trusting oneself that holds true to her Blackness and lived expertise, and the vulnerability of turning into a solo artist.
Then got here “Caju,” the 2024 file that has dominated this 12 months’s nominations. The album attracts on samba, jazz, pagode, disco, funk and reggae to make a distinctly Afro-Brazilian mix of pop music; “Ao Teu Lado” and “Veludo Marrom” exhibit her capacity to deliver a way of intimacy to an expansive efficiency.
In an interview with journalist Pedro Bial, a late-night Brazilian speak present, Liniker explains that, whereas “Indigo” had targeted on her self-discovery, “Caju” tells a extra narrative-driven story, unfolding a 24-hour lover’s chase from Japan to Brazil. The opening title monitor units the tone: “I want to know if you’re going to chase after me at an airport/asking me to stay, not to fly.” Fueled by emotional reflection, “Caju” represents a metaphor for Liniker’s journey as a hard-working artist who continues to be a hopeless romantic at coronary heart.
For a lot of — particularly trans and gender-expansive Latinx audiences, myself included — a Liniker live performance seems like each a personal confessional and a communal celebration.
As a trans Latina dwelling in Brazil, I used to be deeply moved to witness Liniker’s stay efficiency (and the fervour of her followers) in São Paulo, the place she debuted “Caju” with a stay orchestra to almost 8,000 individuals — considered one of three sold-out nights on the metropolis’s Espaço Unimed auditorium. She additionally captivated overseas audiences in September at New York Metropolis’s Lincoln Middle, the place she carried out for the venue’s Brazilian Week collection. Rolling Stone author Carolina Abbott Galvão lauded her as “ready for the spotlight” and praised her command of the stage, in addition to of the pop music trade.
In expressing Black trans pleasure at a time when transgender individuals face systematic exclusion and repression all around the world, Liniker offers a window to know fuller and extra numerous Latinx realities. In “Lili,” a reduce from “Indigo Borboleta Anil,” Liniker’s reflections on dwelling her reality name upon us all to stay ours as nicely.
“When you take care of your heart/When you love your soul/Maybe you can find Lili,” she sings in English. “She isn’t hiding anymore/She just wants to live/To live/Her skin is shining now.”
The 2025 Latin Grammys could show a career-defining evening for the artist. However no matter what number of trophies she takes house, Liniker has already carved out a singular area of interest for herself in Latin music — as a uniquely uncompromising and generation-defining artist.
