Meet Sonja, a singer from Rio who released a tarot-inspired album

Sonja brings with her an artist’s energy that is not tied to stigmas and “titles”; listen to the singer’s work

In times of religious intolerance, the best thing to do is to simply follow your own path, breaking down barriers. This is how we can consider the sound of singer Sonja from Rio, which brought an album marked by spirituality and a unique musical concept for the current times. Recently, she released an extra song from the project, called Better dayswhich was written based on the death letter of tarot cards.

With direct influences from blues and soul, Carioca is heading in a different direction than the “popular” music we listen to today. And perhaps this is yet another difference for the artist, who released his second album in 2023, Queen of Hearts.

The singer, ex The

Each text on the album is inspired not only by a personal experience, but also by a tarot card. “Better Days” features Death. The song is about the end and, consequently, the beginning. But the blues isn’t just about the kind of death we automatically think of.

“This last song is about this thing where we think there is death for us, despite what has happened, the feeling of death, of an end. But in truth, if we stop and look, every end presents a possibility of a new beginning. This song represents this.”

According to Sonja, like “Better Days”, many songs on the album also deal with the possibility of being reborn after death.

“The whole album is about a personal journey of drug abuse, at the same time it’s about abusive relationships, so drugs and people in abusive relationships get mixed up all the time in the album, so it brings possibilities, weaves together difficult situations, things that it had to end. That I didn’t want it to end, but life made it end. I thought it was the end, that the pain was unbearable and that it was over, that I needed it, but when things ended. , calming down, I saw that that “death”, that end of many cycles that closed, was only so that other things could arrive”.

Talking about death may also be taboo for many people, but when you see it from another perspective, it transforms and gives new meaning.

“Death is important, because something needs to be reborn and we continue to insist on mistakes, on things that no longer have a future, and then death comes and breaks with that so that we can experience new things and new paths, so that they can appear other things.”

Listen to the album in full:

Spirituality and message

Sonja brings with her an artist’s energy that is not tied to the stigmas and “titles” she may receive. Even in spirituality.

“I think in the end it happened more than this is actually a problem. I’m Jewish by birth, I found myself in Umbanda and all the work I have on the album Queen of Hearts It is based on the tarot reading of a gypsy, who is an Umbanda entity who has been with me for a long time. There was no way to do this work without talking about spirituality.”

According to the singer, spirituality is part of her history, and it couldn’t be otherwise in an artistic work. In times of religious intolerance it is also a message.

“It’s been a long time coming. This thing of religion entering the work happened very naturally, it never happened in a planned way, I wanted to raise the topic of religious intolerance, but I’m happy that it’s part of the work because if like it or not, it ends up becoming an agenda, it ends up attracting people’s attention to look at the issue of religious intolerance differently.”

Against the current, in favor of who he is

Inspired by Ney Matogrosso, Rita Lee, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, John Coltrane, Tim Maia, The Suffers and other music icons, Sonja does not label her compositions with a specific musical genre.

But she knows what she wants: to break the barriers of the “selective” for hints of blues. Despite this, she is also aware that “paddling against the current” is more tortuous.

“It’s very difficult, especially because I don’t label my work, but its main influence is the blues, which has a very small niche in Rio de Janeiro, it’s bigger in other places like the South and Sao Paulo. But in Brazil in overall it’s a difficult thing to thrive, but I can’t do something just because that something is growing Even though I really like a lot of things that are trendy, that are going on, that are selling, but they’re not something that I’m part of my musicality. , of my art”.

The singer reveals that she has already noticed many barriers to her musical style and that, over the course of her career, she has seen several doors closed for not singing something “saleable”.

“I don’t seem like a moldable person. It’s difficult to pierce a bubble and reach spaces. But I work with the thought that this bubble will be punctured and that I will be able to reach more and more people, little by little, in it’s an ant’s job, we will be able to It’s difficult, but I already knew it would be difficult, so the important thing is to continue singing and making music, staying true to what’s in me.”

Source: Terra

Earl

Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.