Marara Kelly creates blends that fuse her exploration of Brazilian Baile Funk and Technobrega. Infused with numerous elements of popular culture, her remixes encourage audiences to connect with far-off sounds, utilizing the beat as a destabilizing force. The pop remix, a prominent feature in the Baile Funk and Technobrega scene, serves as a gesture of reappropriation and decolonization through a sense of belonging, manifesting in music that exudes joy and sensuality. Her musical journey begins with the sounds of the Brazilian Amazon, her birthplace, interwoven with the rhythms of Rio’s Baile Funk, where she resided for years.
Marara Kelly’s travels have shaped her mixing style, akin to the act of tying a knot that binds together all the places she has visited, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the politics of coexistence. For her, mixing is about expressing what transpires within her body: a Brazilian body that holds the potential to blend her culture with unfamiliar ones through music, dance, and her own artistic practice and performance.
ph. Victor Curi
