Lianne La Havas plays new music composed in Brazil during show in Rio

Before performing two shows in São Paulo — one of them opening for Lenny Kravitz at Allianz Parque —, Lianne LaHavas performed in Rio de Janeiro. The performance was held at Flying Circusa traditional event venue in Lapa, last Thursday night (21).

Amid a repertoire that featured an almost complete performance of the most recent album — eponymous, from 2020 — and a cover of “Weird Fishes” (Radiohead), the English singer played a song that had previously remained unreleased. The track, created during a visit to the country last year, was presented with the title “Hummingbird”in Portuguese.

According to the journalist Pedro Hollandain text for the website IgorMiranda.com.br, La Havas highlighted that the common name for the various bird species is his favorite word in the language. The second position goes to “zucchini”.

Although he said the word in Portuguese loud and clear, with the right to a complementary comment about the vegetable, the website Setlist.fm cites the song with the title “Hummingbird”precisely the English name of the hummingbird. It is possible that the term was written that way in the printed setlist.

A video of the song can be seen in the player below or clicking here.

Lianne La Havas and Brazil

It is not surprising that Lianne LaHavas spoke about the Portuguese language during the show in Rio. In an interview with Rolling Stone Brazilthe artist said she was learning the language, in which she sang alongside her idol Milton Nascimento on two occasions.

The first took place in June 2022, when he participated in a Brazilian show at the Union Chapel, in London, England, performing with him “Meetings and Farewells”. The second took place in the studio: they recorded together “I miss Panair planes (talking at the bar)”on the album Milton + hopecollaboration of Bituca with the American double bassist Esperanza Spalding.

About intimacy with the Portuguese language and the difficulty when recording “I miss Panair planes (talking at the bar)”Lianne states:

“I listen to a lot of Brazilian music and lyrics in Portuguese. So, for me, the difficult part was reading the page with the lyrics and singing at the same time, because I know how it sounds, but reading it is like really understanding the meaning. It took a while, but I felt even more connected to the culture and country doing it. It was a little difficult, but I think spending time here makes things a little easier. It ends up coming naturally after a while.”

The show Lenny Kravitz with opening Lianne LaHavas, Frejat and Liniker takes place this Saturday (23), at Allianz Parque, in São Paulo. A day later, at Cine Joia, also in the capital of São Paulo, the artist performs solo. Tickets are still on sale on the Eventim website.