From Leon Thomas’ “Mutt” breakthrough to Kehlani scoring a long-overdue Hot 100 top 10 hit with “Folded,” R&B is in the midst of an upswing — and the world is taking notice. When she first started making music over 13 years ago, Brazilian superstar Ludmilla chose a moniker inspired by Billboard’s No. 4 Greatest R&B Artist of All Time. Though she’s long retired her “MC Beyoncé” stage name, Ludmilla looked to Queen Bey’s signature genre for her latest evolution.
Out Friday (Nov. 6), Fragmentos is Ludmilla’s formal pivot into R&B. Anchored by SZA-esque, guitar-backed ballads and steamy, imaginative amalgamations of R&B, dance, baile funk, pagode and hip-hop, the Latin Grammy winner’s sixth studio album is sleek, sexy and stacked with some of the year’s catchiest melodies. Featuring collaborations with Victoria Monét, Muni Long and Latto, the album also finds Ludmilla using the vast expanse of R&B to wax poetic about both her queerness and her maturation since becoming a mother in May. With heart-wrenching songs like “Paraiso” communicating the “blues” elements of R&B, Ludmilla tackled the genre’s “rhythm” side with tracks like the sultry Monét-assisted “Cam Girl.”
After her successful transition from pop and funk carioca to pagode (an offshoot of samba), Ludmilla became the first Afro-Latina artist to cross one billion streams on Spotify and the first Afro-Latina act to play Coachella’s mainstage, which means she’s no stranger to big risks and bigger rewards. Even though initial apprehension steered her back to funk after early Fragmentos writing sessions resulted in unmistakably R&B songs, Ludmilla heeded her wife Brunna Gonçalves’ advice to always “trust her feelings.”
“I was the first Black woman to sell out a stadium in Brazil,” she tells Billboard via her translator, with a humility that belies the magnitude of her achievement. “A lot of things contributed to me [feeling comfortable] taking this risk.”
With hopes of an intimate Fragmentos tour next year and Brazil’s annual Carnival celebrations just a few months away, Ludmilla is entering her latest chapter more self-assured than ever before. Below, she speaks with Billboard about finding her lane in R&B, challenging herself to pull something new out of familiar melodies and processing her queer journey through her songwriting.
What inspired the shift into a deeper R&B sound?
I had a project called Numanice, which was mostly pagode, a local rhythm in Brazil similar to R&B but still very different. After doing that project, I felt free to start singing about love. I always wanted to sing about love, but I was holding on to pop music and dance.
How big was R&B in Brazil when you were growing up, and how big would you say it is now?
R&B in Brazil has no playlisting, no radio support, no festivals — it’s very small. I’m very inspired and motivated to do R&B because I was doing it 10 years ago, but Brazilians didn’t know R&B as they do now. In Brazil, we mostly listen to international R&B artists. We don’t have big local R&B artists.
In that case, did this album feel like a risk?
100%. It [was the same risk] I felt when I shifted into pagode, because there were no women singing that genre at the time. Now, many artists are doing pagode projects and switching their genres because of me. It was a really big risk because I [made my name] singing pop and funk. It’s a big investment, but I believe in what I’m doing.
When and where did you record most of the album? What was the first song that you knew for sure was going to be on the project?
The first song I realized would be a part of the album is actually the first track, “Whiskey Com Água de Choro.” I wrote it two years ago in São Paulo, and once I finished it, I was like, “I’m going to sing a whole R&B project.” I wrote a bunch of funk songs after that, but I wanted to follow what I believed and what I was feeling in the moment. My wife told me to always trust my feelings because I end up being right. [Smiles]. I was very successful in changing my career from pop to pagode… did I want to do it again? I realized that I should.
When did you know that the album was finished?
After working on 50 songs. [Laughs.]
Why did you select “Cam Girl” as a pre-single?
“Cam Girl” was a strategy to let my audience, and Brazilians in general, understand that R&B is not only slow songs. I wanted people to understand that you can dance to R&B, too. I’ve always wanted to collaborate with Victoria [Monét], because we’re friends and we’ve been talking about collaborating for a while. Because the first single was “Paraiso” and it was slower, “Cam Girl” showed that you can dance and party with R&B.
Talk to me about collaborating with Muni Long.
It was so nice collaborating with Muni Long; I love her song “Hrs & Hrs.” When she followed me on Instagram, I was like, “Oh my God, she knows me?” Then we started texting and became instant friends. We knew we needed to do a song together — but she finished her album first, so I was like, “You’re going to be on my album.” I didn’t even ask her to sing in Portuguese; she just sent her verse in, and it was her singing in Portuguese. She wanted to do that. She was like, “Your language is so beautiful, I want to sing in your language.”
I cried a lot the first time I listened to the song — because I didn’t even ask Muni to do that, and she really respected my language. Portuguese is global, but it’s a very small language. I am still very emotional.
You also linked up with Latto on “Bota.” How did that one come together?
I wrote a lot of funk songs [at the beginning of the album process], and this was one of those. It’s very dirty and sexy, and when I finished writing it, I was like, “I want Latto on this song.” I’m known in Brazil as being very versatile, and she didn’t want to stick to one genre. After some time, I was like, “This is my album, f—k it, I’m gonna do whatever I want.” It’s R&B, but I’ll have fun music and pagode and whatever I want on it. This song with Latto is for Carnival!
On “Textos Longos,” you flip Ghost Town DJs’ 1996 classic “My Boo.” How do you strive to create something fresh out of songs that have been reimagined so many times?
It’s very challenging using samples, because people already have feelings about [the original song]. But those are the times when I can experiment and just have fun. Nowadays, it’s also very difficult, because there’s a lot of people doing different things with the same song, and it’s hard for you to do something new.
What’s the most emotional song on the album?
“Paraioso” is the most emotional song I’ve ever made, because it tells the beginning of my relationship with my wife. When I started dating my wife, I was not out of the closet, because I thought that my career would be [negatively impacted]. I was very scared. This part of her life was very sad, because I needed to hide who I truly was. I couldn’t kiss my wife or have any type of public affection. That left a mark on me.
A lot of fans were speculating about a Beyoncé collaboration based on your “Cam Girl” visualizer…
After Beyoncé introducing me at Coachella… nothing is impossible.
Do you have any plans to tour this record?
I want to tour next year. The last tour was outdoors, and now I want to do something indoors and more intimate.
For Americans looking to get into baile funk, what are three funk songs everyone should know?
“Verdinha” by [myself], Topo La Maskara, Walshy Fire; “Noite das Safadas” by Mc Byana, MC Fabinho da Osk, MC Foca do Salgueiro, and “Baile n Morro” by Dj Win, MC Tairon, and Mc Vitin Da Igrejinha.
