Meet Ludmilla, the queer Black Latina singer who conquered Coachella
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The Queen of Favela is taking over the world!
LUDMILLA - Rainha da Favela - Live at Coachella 2024
Queer, Black, Latina singer Ludmilla is gaining an even bigger global audience following her breakout performance at the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Scheduled to perform at the Coachella Stage on Sunday, April 14 and April 21, Ludmilla's music and life story is resonating with audience members who might not have known her before the festival.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Ludmilla is a 28-year-old singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and businesswoman with a career that spans 12 years, includes countless hit songs, and operates under a genre-defying approach to Brazilian pop music. Ludmilla's most popular songs include "Cheguei," "Din Din Din," "Maldivas," "24 Horas Por Dia," and "Meu Desapego," to name a few.
Brazilian fans consider Ludmilla as the Queen of Favela, like one would refer to Tina Turner as the Queen of Rock'n'roll and Aretha Franklin as the Queen of Soul. Ludmilla has a song that references that title, "Rainha da Favela," which she performed at Coachella.
Coachella attendees are now OBSESSED with Ludmilla.
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A press release details that Ludmilla invested upwards of $1.5 million (in U.S. dollars) on her Coachella set dubbed as "#LUDchella."
Well, we can now safely say that this moment has been worth that investment! Ludmilla broke the internet with her Coachella debut on Sunday, April 14 featuring her catalog of hit songs, mesmerizing choreography, and an appearance from her wife, Brunna Gonçalves, to join her on stage.
A wave of pictures and videos quickly took over social media to celebrate that a queer, Black, Latina musician had just made her Coachella debut with a fearless set that included non-English songs and a special appearance from Brunna that ended up in an adorable kiss between them.
One video of Ludmilla and Brunna shared by X user @sapphicslike has 11 million views and 70,000 likes.
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One day later, @sapphicslike shared another X post of Ludmilla and Brunna that's accumulated 1.1 million views and 44,000 likes as of this writing. According to Social Blade, Ludmilla has gained over 30,000 Instagram followers since her Coachella debut, and the numbers keep on growing.
Ludmilla tells Out about the 'special' and 'beautiful' response she's receiving.
Hayden Stills
Out reached out to Ludmilla and asked how she feels seeing this overwhelmingly positive response to her Coachella performance — particularly from fans outside Brazil who also identify as queer, Black, and/or Latino.
"I'm loving the lovely response that I'm receiving! The fact that people from outside Brazil are identifying with [my music and story] is very special," Ludmilla tells Out in an exclusive statement. "I saw that there have been several news articles and social media comments about Brunna and I, supporting our love in Spanish and English, which we think is really beautiful."
Ludmilla has had a record-breaking and critically-acclaimed career in music.
Ludmilla has 4.4 billion views on YouTube, 30.5 million followers on Instagram, 12.5 million followers on TikTok, and 11.2 million followers on X/Twitter as of this writing. She's also maintained an average 17 million monthly listeners on Spotify in recent months, earning herself the title of "most-listened Afro-Latina artist on Spotify" (via Billboard Brasil).
In 2017, Ludmilla was nominated for her first-ever Latin Grammy Award in the category of Best Portuguese Language Contemporary Pop Album (A Danada Sou Eu). And in 2022, she won her first Latin Grammy for Best Samba/Pagode Album (Numanice #2). Ludmilla has been nominated for six MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) over the years, and was nominated as Best International Act at the 2022 BET Awards.
The fact that an Afro-Latina singer with such record-breaking numbers is also a queer woman… I mean, how can you not stan?!
Ludmilla is bisexual and married Brunna Gonçalves five years ago.
Steff Lima; Hayden Stills
Despite the fact that Brazil is still considered a very homophobic country, Ludmilla started dating Brunna Gonçalves in October 2018 and didn't take long to make their relationship public. On December 16, 2019, the couple got married in a surprise ceremony — entirely planned and coordinated by Ludmilla — taking place inside their own home.
Brunna is 32 years old (four years older than Ludmilla) and is best known as a dancer. In 2015, Brunna started performing as a backup dancer for Ludmilla, but their relationship was kept strictly professional for a few years. Ludmilla was still in the closet at the time, and Brunna had never experienced relationships with other women. Though they started developing feelings for each other, it took a while for them to take the leap.
As of 2024, they've been together for almost six years and married for nearly five of them… and it doesn't take much to see how incredibly happy Ludmilla and Brunna make each other.
She's always been a diehard Beyoncé fan.
Coachella 🥰
As a diehard Beyoncé fan ever since she was a little girl, Ludmilla actually started out her career under the stage name of M.C. Beyoncé ("emcee Beyoncé") back in 2012. Upon being signed to a record label in 2013, the Brazilian pop star dropped the M.C. Beyoncé name to avoid potential issues and adopted her own birth name, Ludmila, adding an extra L for her stage name.
Nonetheless, Ludmilla has never stopped stanning, referencing, and showing her admiration for Queen Bey. In a recent TikTok video with her wife, Brunna, shared during Coachella, Ludmilla used the Cowboy Carter song "II HANDS II HEAVEN" as an audio-tag.
Ludmilla's music eras & high-profile collaborations.
LUDMILLA x Ryan Castro - Piña Colada
Ludmilla is currently promoting her latest single, "Piña Colada," featuring Ryan Castro. During her Coachella debut, Ryan appeared as a guest artist to perform "Piña Colada" with the Brazilian pop star. Over the years, Ludmilla has released five studio albums: 2014's Hoje, 2016's A Danada Sou Eu, 2019's Hello Mundo, 2022's Numanice 2, and 2023's Vilã.
High-profile collaborations in her career include songs with international artists like Snoop Dogg, Ty Dolla $ign, Major Lazer, David Guetta, Skrillex, Sean Paul, Bebe Rexha, Jeremih, and Mariah Angeliq. She has also collaborated with Brazilian superstars like Pabllo Vittar, Gloria Groove, Anitta, Xamã, Luísa Sonza, Marília Mendonça, Thiaguinho, and MC Lan, to name a few.
