Rock fans are undeniably well catered for at Lollapalooza Brazil 2025. Names like Tool, Alanis Morissette , and Fontaines DC Sepultura and Dead Fish stand out , but there's another attraction worth keeping an eye on: Giovanna Moraes .
Working in the music scene since 2017, it was more recently that Giovanna established her identity and name within Brazilian rock. With the album Para Tomar Coragem (2022) , she moved away from the diversity of genres she previously explored in her music (MPB, pop, jazz, R&B) and began a new chapter in her discography. Her previous works were removed from streaming platforms to make room for this new musical identity, but those who are curious can still find them on YouTube , where they were intentionally left as a reminder of her journey so far.
It was with the album Fama de Chata (2023) that Giovanna Moraes reached new audiences and began to draw more attention to her name. Even before the album's release, the artist created a viral trend on her social media using a snippet of the song "Fala na Cara," which would only be released many weeks later. Before the track even reached streaming services in its entirety, it was already a success. In the videos, Giovanna appears in various locations in São Paulo performing a snippet of her song in public with a body posture reminiscent of a child throwing a tantrum. The videos immediately attract attention for their spontaneity and expressive power, but also for the curious glances of passersby who observe the scene with strangeness.
In addition to this, the singer also created several other trends for herself and saw her social media numbers explode, always using excerpts from songs from her new album that end up getting stuck in the heads of viewers. In another example, she satirizes sexist and hateful comments with a snippet mocking the existence of so-called "true" metal fans, who tend to be inflexible with the arrival of new things in rock. Names like Supla , Henrique Fogaça , and João Gordo ; João Gordo even hosted Giovanna on an episode of his cooking show, Panelaço . Another name who didn't hide his admiration for the artist's work was Tico Santa Cruz , from Detonautas .
In an interview with Wikimetal , Giovanna Moraes talks about how she found her calling in rock music, how she deals with hate on social media, and the challenges and precautions she faces when working with a younger audience. She will be performing at Lollapalooza on Sunday, March 30th.
Wikimetal: When I met you, you were a different person. Your sound was different, the way you presented yourself was different, your appearance was different. Everything was very different. When did you switch from that Giovanna Moraes to the Giovanna Moraes you are now?
Giovanna Moraes: I think everyone is a being of transformation, and we peel away the layers that no longer make sense to us, getting closer to our inner selves. I'm still, in some way, on that journey, trying to find my place and trying to remove the parts that perhaps no longer make sense to me. I think at some point we become very afraid of being ourselves, and afraid that people won't like us, and sometimes we end up wearing masks. So, I think my story is very much about that. A story of courage in removing and discovering what's behind each mask.
WM: How did you find your place within rock music?
GM: I think, at my core, I've always been rock. More because I didn't really like fitting into any box, being forced to follow a musical genre or a label. So, I think that, in a way, it's always been very rock 'n' roll, you know? Saying: "Let me be who I am." And I think my work, even before being rooted in rock, had this kind of rock 'n' roll attitude, but it was hidden behind a shyness, an obligation to be a certain way for others. And eventually we reach a point where we don't have much more to lose, you know? So we say: Well, that's it. I have to take courage and do something different.
WM: You've been working with music since 2017. How do you feel about having found your audience and your niche more recently, after all these years?
GM: It's really cool, it's really crazy. I think sometimes we think things are taking too long and not moving forward, but in reality they're moving forward quite a bit, you know? Every comma, every step I took, was important for me to get to where I am today and understand who I'm talking to, what my work has to do with this connection thing, who it connects with, and why it connects.
So, meeting girls who are going through similar things to what I went through, or who are going through now, or who have already gone through, and understanding that, in some way, my work offers an alternative to the world in which we see the role of women, you know? It's been really cool to meet this kind of audience.
It's a project I've dreamed of for a long time in my life, and at the same time it's kind of sad because we see how sad and lonely many of these people feel. And trying to bring something that simultaneously represents these people in future projects, but also gives them a boost, a motivation, you know? So it's been very special to meet these people and I hope I can encourage them too.
WM: Your audience consists largely of young girls, teenagers, and pre-teens. What message do you hope to convey to them, and are there any particular challenges in dealing with this age group?
GM: I think the challenge is that sometimes I don't know what to say, you know? I don't have everything figured out, I wish I did, and sometimes I feel like people are trying to make me kind of like a mother, you know? Sometimes I feel kind of… I don't know if I'm the right person, I'm still just trying to take care of myself. But, at the same time, it's really cool because I feel like it took me so many years to feel comfortable being who I am, being able to be myself, not falling into the traps of having to be beautiful, of having to please people, and I think every woman, in some way, suffers from that in our world today. So, it's great to be able to offer an alternative to these people, to show that it's possible. And I hope that, in some way, I'm doing that, you know? Because really, sometimes I'm still figuring it out and it's a responsibility too.
WM: You've always been a very authentic person in your career, even before " Fama de Chata" ( ). Because of that, you receive a lot of hate on social media, but you always respond in a humorous way. Despite this, do these comments still affect you today?
GM: Honestly, the hate even helps me, you know? Because engagement, the platform doesn't know how to distinguish between what's bad and what's good. It only understands that there are a lot of people engaging here. So I even miss it when I'm not receiving so much hate [laughs]. I think, "Hey, where are all the people who were driving my social media for me?"
I think everything has phases. There are moments and there are posts that, when they come out of the water a little, then people start tearing them down again. And there are days when I find it funny and I say, "Wow, how small this person's life is, you know? For them to be here tearing me down and trying to bring me down, to make themselves feel better." But there are also days when I say, "Wow, how sad that any little thing we do..." You know? [There are days] when I'm more sensitive. So I say, "Ugh, what a drag. Today I wasn't in the mood to read a thousand messages about how horrible I am."
So I think there are ups and downs in dealing with hate. I try to see the other person and understand that the person commenting is more about themselves than about me. And I think social media, if you think about it… I come from academia, right? So we have an understanding of the people that exist in the world. We have a reaction. And I think that's interesting for us to observe as a society, you know? What are some behaviors, some beliefs, even when I think they're ugly. I say: Wow, people pick on women so much it's outrageous. Especially when you're not performing the role that's expected of you as beautiful, or whatever.
But I also prefer to see what the world is like rather than live in my bubble thinking everything is perfect, that everyone is deconstructed. So, I don't know, there are various aspects to working with the internet and with haters .
WM: Can you tell us a little more about your academic background?
GM: I studied cognitive neuroscience, which is a neuroscience of the parts we still don't understand; what thinking is, what paying attention is… Trying to understand the neurochemical basis for things that are still kind of a black box. I went to study this because my whole life people told me I had a problem and everyone thought something different. "Oh, she has mood problems. Kind of depressed, kind of anxious, a mixed disorder." Or, "Oh, it's attention deficit," or "No, she's autistic." Everyone says something different. And I wanted to understand where my problem was, you know?
I can take medicine, I can accept that I was born with a defect, maybe all of that sounds too true to me, but I wanted to understand first, you know? If I have a problem, where is the problem? And… I don't know, I studied a lot and went deep into the subject and realized that we understand very little about this subject. Very little indeed. Neuroscience is a very young science and we don't even understand what normal attention is to be able to say that someone has a problem with attention or not, you know?
And I know that many people feel comforted by diagnoses and medication, and for a long time I also felt comforted by diagnoses and medication, but I also think that this search for us to be happy and well all the time isn't something that, for me, is mental health, it's not something that, for me, is healthy. So, there were other moments in my life where I didn't like this feeling of being born with a defect. Because, in fact, I think everyone suffers a similar experience, you know? Everyone is struggling to have more good days than bad days. And when we're having a bad day, it's hard to hear over the voices in our heads. So, I studied this a lot with my own motivation to understand myself. And, by extension, I ended up understanding a lot about human beings. I ended up understanding that I am, in some way, a variation of any other human being, you know? I'm not so different, authentic, original. We are all very similar to each other.
So, I wanted to do something that would resonate with more people, you know? Something that would perhaps bring a little more hope to people who were feeling trapped and lost within themselves and in this search for more, for happiness, for being enough. I still do some translation and academic research to supplement my income, and I enjoy it. I find it very interesting. That's why I told you, I think the internet, in a way, is also a form of research, you know? I can throw a topic out there and get a response about how people feel about that topic. And that's it. For me, it was music because I felt that I wasn't going to discover something that would solve the problem for someone who feels inadequate. But maybe I could write a song that would embrace someone who feels very misunderstood. And maybe that would be enough.
WM: You have a community on Discord to chat with your fans. What's your strategy for connecting with your audience? How do you keep the newcomers, the ones who are just getting to know you, engaged?
GM: I like Discord, I usually have calls with them once a week, and it's really interesting for me to get to know these people. It's interesting both when there are new people and when it's the same group. We get to know each other and loosen up a little more each time. So that part is cool. There are a lot of people who don't have Discord, don't know how to use it, don't want to, or sometimes are even in the channel but don't participate in the calls. I think I'm very open with those who want to interact. I also reply to comments, things like that, and try to keep an eye on who's using the music on TikTok, Instagram, Reels. And that's it, but it's kind of complicated, right? I am, actually, the soundtrack , you know? So, I don't think it's so much about the connection with me, it's more about the music bringing you something, some strength in your life. And sometimes that's enough too. It's difficult, it's complicated.
WM: A large part of your recent audience came through the trends you created on social media. How did you come up with the idea for the first video about these trends?
GM: It's more of a way to promote it. Sometimes people need to fall in love with a part of the song before hearing the whole thing. When I recorded "Fala Na Cara," I recorded a few other songs, and that was the only one I got excited about. [The excerpt used in the trend] is something that makes me laugh, you know? I feel uncomfortable, I think, "Wow, seriously, you're going to say that?" And precisely because I feel that way, I knew that was the right part to promote. Because I thought, "If I feel uncomfortable and laugh, other people will also laugh at that part and have something to say."
So we started testing this part even before the song was released. We started trying out different ways to say this part. The first idea was to try to go to some kind of ostentatious places and make it seem like I was literally a spoiled brat. But that started to get complicated, there weren't that many possible places. And I started noticing my facial expressions, I thought, "Wow, how ugly I am, how strange these facial expressions are." And then I thought, "No, I think that's exactly it. It has to be strange and kind of ugly." And something told me about this angle from above, because then I look even smaller, like a child throwing a tantrum, you know?
And that was it, I was making the first ones [and thinking] “No, it needs more energy.” And it was, in part, because I was also bothered by it. [I] said, “Wow, but these faces are awful.” But because it was ugly, I knew it would also cause some reaction, some hate from some people. And then, before I released the song, the song had already gone viral. It was kind of by chance.
To be honest, I almost didn't release this song. A week before recording, I still didn't have the lyrics. I was rewriting the lyrics of old songs. And I was going to throw this one away and say, "I don't know what to say here, I have nothing to say." And then, in a stroke of luck, it became the song that ended up giving me the most insight up to that point. And I was very lost before that. It's very difficult to make a living from art. I believe that life is difficult in any way, it's tough for everyone, and we're here trying to do what we can to survive. But it's complicated and sometimes we feel lost.
In my previous album, which is called Para Tomar Coragem (To Take Courage) , there's a song called "Clichê" (Cliché). And it literally says that I need a sign. "Help me understand." "Because I've tried everything and I'm spinning my wheels, I still don't understand." And then, after asking for this sign so many times, my sign comes. My sign is called: Giovanna Moraes, Fala Na Cara (Giovanna Moraes, Speak Your Mind). So, for me, I really accepted this challenge, you know? I thought, wow, me being a shy person… I know people think I'm very outgoing, but actually, I'm a very reserved, very introspective person. It's hard for me to come out of my shell. And I said, "Okay, I wanted a sign, the sign came, it's called Fala Na Cara, so let me open it here and see what else I have to say that might make me uncomfortable, that might cause this laughter."
Maybe it's partly what I think people think when they look at me or my work, you know? Or what society expects of me as a woman. And that's how " Fama de Chata" (Reputation for Being Annoying) , which is my album. These are things I think I can't talk about, you know? And for me it was a tremendous success, it's been a tremendous success. Of course, we always want more, and that's it. Still trying to figure out the way. It's difficult.
WM: In March you're going to play at Lollapalooza. How did you feel when you heard that news, and what are your expectations?
GM: It's crazy when you work so hard and you get something to show for that work, you know? I'm very happy, really happy. It's something that came from a lot of hard work. There were many contests like "Vote for me to play somewhere" and a lot of time promoting my music and being patient with the haters and converting people to get to this moment of being on an international, renowned stage, at one of the biggest festivals in Brazil and the world, you know?
It's crazy and very exciting, I'm really thrilled. I want to make the most of this opportunity, take full advantage of it, do everything I can. I also think that when you're working hard to achieve something, sometimes you feel empty, right? Because you think, "Damn, I did it. Now what?" So I feel like I'm a little bit in that phase, to be honest. I'm a little like, "Where am I going from here?" Not long ago I wanted the things I have today and I'm very happy with them, I'm not trying to complain. But also, damn, now what? Where's the next horizon? I'm feeling a little like that too, I won't lie.
WM: What are you planning for the show? What can we expect from your performance?
GM: I'm planning on playing a large part of my album "Fama de Chata" because it's an album that resonated with so many people. The shows I've already done with this album were very special, and I believe it will be very special to do it at Lolla. I think it's going to be awesome. But I also intend to bring some new things that I'm still working on, actually. Something that perhaps represents the next chapter of GGG, something that I can use to take advantage of all this movement and visibility of the festival to also bring a little hype to my next chapter.”
WM: You recently used Instagram to chat a bit with people who ask for tours in other states and to explain some of the difficulties of being an independent artist. How does this undertaking of touring as an independent artist work?
GM: I think the biggest difficulty is the lack of funding. We don't have the resources of investors, which would allow me to do everything I'd like to do. If I could, I'd be touring Brazil. There are people everywhere in Brazil, and many people have been impacted online, but I can't, you know? My band is hired; it's me, Tannus, who is my partner and husband, and the rest of the band is hired. I have costs to travel. And many times I depend on the social media algorithm to deliver the show, and it doesn't always deliver. Sometimes I have people in Curitiba who didn't even know about the show until I left. So, it's complicated to make things happen. And, to make matters worse, there are few places in Brazil that have the infrastructure to host a show where my audience, which is younger and may have never been to a rock concert, would be willing to go. So there are many difficulties indeed. Infrastructure difficulties in Brazil, algorithm delivery difficulties, cost difficulties, logistical difficulties.
I keep telling people: Spread the word to everyone, because that helps me a lot to get things done. When I have enough people, I can get there. And I plan, maybe towards the end of the year, a little before or a little after Lollapalooza, to take advantage of the festival's momentum to take my show to some other places. I think that by planning well in advance, there are some places where I can, theoretically, sell some tickets and do a little gig, a bit of commerce, something, so I can at least be close, face to face, with the people who help me make so much noise online.
WM: My last question for today, to wrap up the conversation, is… How would you introduce Giovanna Moraes, yourself, to someone who doesn't know you or your music yet?
GM: Maybe I'd say I'm a little crazy, but who isn't, you know? I'm a part of you, maybe. I'm a girl who got tired of being nice and who's deciding to say what she thinks, even if nobody's going to listen, but who's prepared to say what she thinks. And… I don't know, kind of cheeky. Maybe kind of cheeky. I think that's positive, us taking up more space. And my sound, I'd say it's big, fat, and funny. GGG.