Ana Faria Fainguelernt (born 19 December 1997), better known by the stage name Ana Frango Elétrico (), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, poet, and visual artist. Based in Rio de Janeiro, they released their debut studio album ''Mormaço Queima'' in 2018. Their subsequent albums ''Little Electric Chicken Heart'' (2019) and ''Me Chama de Gato Que Eu Sou Sua'' (2023) were released to critical acclaim, with the former nominated for Best Portuguese Language Rock or Alternative Album at the

21st Annual Latin Grammy Awards The 21st Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held on Thursday, November 19, 2020 and broadcast on TelevisaUnivision. The 2020 Latin Grammy ceremony was anchored from the American Airlines Arena in Miami, though the health protocols enacted due to the ...

Early life

Ana Faria Fainguelernt was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 19 December 1997. They acquired the nickname "Frango Elétrico" (Portuguese for "Electric Chicken") from their grandfather, whose schoolmates struggled to pronounce his Russian last name Fainguelernt. By age 10, Fainguelernt studied guitar under the tutelage of Brazilian guitarist Aloysio Neves. As a teenager, they listened to many Brazilian musicians associated with bossa nova and the

Tropicália Tropicália (), also known as tropicalismo (), was a Brazilian art movement that arose in the late 1960s. It was characterized by the amalgamation of Brazilian genres—notably the union of the popular and the avant-garde, as well as the meldi ...

movement, including

Jorge Ben Jor Jorge Duílio Lima Menezes (born March 22, 1939) is a Brazilian popular musician, performing under the stage name Jorge Ben Jor since the 1980s, though commonly known by his former stage name Jorge Ben (). Performing in a samba style that also ...

Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicália, which encompas ...

, Itamar Assumpção, and Novos Baianos, later remarking, "I love

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

because I’m Brazilian." In high school, Fainguelernt and their classmates formed a band called Almoço Nu (the Brazilian Portuguese title of the novel ''

Naked Lunch ''Naked Lunch'' (first published as ''The Naked Lunch'') is a 1959 novel by American author William S. Burroughs. The novel does not follow a clear linear plot, but is instead structured as a series of non-chronological "routines". Many of thes ...

''), performing music that blended

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

with

maracatu The term maracatu denotes any of several performance genres found in Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil. Main types of maracatu include '' maracatu nação'' (nation-style maracatu) and ''maracatu rural'' (rural-style maracatu). Maracatu Nação Ma ...

and

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans during colonial times. Cumbia is said to have com ...

influences. Fainguelernt was also influenced by the sounds of artists including

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

, and

Everything but the Girl Everything but the Girl are an English musical duo formed in Kingston upon Hull in 1982, consisting of lead singer, songwriter, composer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer, producer and sing ...

Personal life

Fainguelernt is

pansexual Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determ ...

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

, and

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

. They express their gender through music.

Career

In 2016, Fainguelernt began recording their debut album ''Mormaço Queima'', whose title loosely translates to "sunburn without sun, but from the sea wind". The album, produced alongside Thiago Nassif and released in 2018, is influenced by

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

and has a loose sound, with instruments not held to a

click track A click track is a series of audio cues used to synchronize sound recordings, sometimes for synchronization to a Film, moving image. The click track originated in early sound movies, where optical marks were made on the film to indicate precise ...

. An edited version of the album, remastered by Martin Scian, was released as a vinyl

LP record The LP (from long playing or long play) is an Analog recording, analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of revolutions per minute, rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use ...

in 2020. Between 2018 and 2019, Fainguelernt recorded their sophomore album ''Little Electric Chicken Heart'', which blends influences from

chamber pop Chamber pop (also called baroque pop and sometimes conflated with orchestral pop or symphonic pop) is a music genre that combines rock music with the intricate use of strings, horns, piano, and vocal harmonies, and other components drawn from t ...

art pop Art pop (also typeset art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by art theory, art theories as well as ideas from other art mediums, such as fashion, fine art, film, cinema, and avant-garde literature. The genre dra ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

, and MPB. It was released in 2019 to critical acclaim, garnering a nomination for Best Portuguese Language Rock or Alternative Album at the

in 2020. When asked to describe the genres of their first two albums, Fainguelernt said, "''Mormaço Queima'', I’d normally say is ' bossa pop rock'. And ''Little Electric Chicken Heart'' is 'ballad-rock jazz'. But, really, it’s not jazz, it’s not bossa, it’s not rock – what the fuck is it? I don’t know! It just doesn’t need to be something!" In 2021, Fainguelernt published a catalogue book of poetry, prints, and illustrations created between 2015 and 2019 titled ''Escoliose: paralelismo miúdo'' (). Fainguelernt described the collection as "part of a bigger search into my language: Portuguese words – and colours," also noting that three poems from the collection became lyrics to songs on ''Mormaço Queima'' and ''Little Electric Chicken Heart''. Fainguelernt has helmed the production for other artists' albums, including the 2021 self-titled debut album by Brazilian band Sophia Chablau e Uma Enorme Perda de Tempo, and the 2022 debut album ''Sim Sim Sim'' by Brazilian band Bala Desejo. Fainguelernt's third studio album, ''Me Chama de Gato Que Eu Sou Sua'', was released in 2023 in collaboration between British record label Mr Bongo, Fainguelernt's label Risco, and Japanese label Think! Records. Fainguelernt said regarding the album, "I started it in 2021 with the intention of showing, in means of sound, understanding and feelings about

love, subjectively exposing myself." Drawing from various genres including bossa nova,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

boogie Boogie is a repetition (music), repetitive, swung note, swung note or shuffle rhythm,Burrows, Terry (1995). ''Play Country Guitar'', p.42. Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. . groove (music), "groove" or pattern used in blues which was origina ...

lounge music Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The ra ...

, and

city pop is a loosely defined form of Japanese pop music that emerged in the late 1970s and peaked in popularity during the 1980s. It was originally termed as an offshoot of Japan's Western-influenced " new music", but came to include a wide range of st ...

, it has been described by critics as "a hard-grooving time machine" and "a satisfying rummage in the racks of an exceptional record shop". It was chosen by the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte as one of the 50 best Brazilian albums of 2023.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Mormaço Queima'' (2018) * ''Little Electric Chicken Heart'' (2019) * ''Me Chama de Gato Que Eu Sou Sua'' (2023)

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frango Eletrico, Ana Living people 1997 births Singers from Rio de Janeiro (city) Brazilian non-binary people Queer singer-songwriters Brazilian pansexual people Non-binary pansexual people Pansexual musicians Non-binary singer-songwriters Brazilian LGBTQ singer-songwriters Non-binary artists Brazilian multi-instrumentalists LGBTQ record producers 21st-century Brazilian painters Jazz multi-instrumentalists 21st-century Brazilian poets 21st-century Brazilian singer-songwriters 21st-century Brazilian artists 21st-century Brazilian LGBTQ people Brazilian indie pop musicians Brazilian jazz (genre) guitarists Brazilian experimental musicians Experimental pop musicians Psychedelic musicians Chamber pop musicians Sophisti-pop musicians Brazilian funk singers Art pop singers Música Popular Brasileira singers Brazilian keyboardists Brazilian queer people Queer painters Brazilian record producers