Anitta and her label Warner Records have long been involved in a public dispute over the Brazillian pop star’s desire to have her contract terminated, but the dispute has grown increasingly hard to ignore in the past few weeks, as she has taken her issues directly to fans on social media.
On March 8, Anitta uploaded a series of explainers to her Instagram story that started with a repost of the label’s use of her image for a post in celebration of International Women’s Day. The singer has been expressing her anger both on Instagram, where she posts in English, and Twitter, where she uses Portuguese.
“Communication at Warner is so good that [they’re] posting me on a Happy women’s day looping post, even tho I had to go public to ask for the ‘woman respect’ that this date represents,” the singer wrote in her first post, saying the Warner post was “using [as] background the song they said would never break without a feat cuz I wasn’t strong enough for that.” The reference was to “Envolver,” a major hit in many markets in 2022, with Anitta alleging the label didn’t believe her own star power was sufficient without a feature from a bigger guest artist.
Apparently addressing Warner Music Group’s newly installed CEO, Robert Kyncl, Anitta posted a screenshot of an email she purportedly sent to him. In it, she states that she has repeatedly had to ask the label to do things “you are supposed to naturally do,” and ended the note by saying that she’s going to “hire a new person [whose] job will be [to] ‘ask Warner to do their job everyday.’”
“Respect me,” she wrote to the label in her Instagram post, “instead of sending your lawyers to talk to mine about money… I already accepted the sad unfair fact that I’m the major investor here and asked the label to just do the simple job they were supposed to: promote my music.”
“Major investor” is in reference to Anitta’s claims that the label had refused to pay for music videos and TV performances for her music, including her and Missy Elliott’s performance of their song “Lobby” at the 2022 American Music Awards, which was ultimately sponsored by fashion company Shein.
Representatives for Warner Music Group did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Though Anitta has been vocal about these issues plenty of times before, these comments come on the heels of some lengthy Twitter venting that started when a fan said they wished she could be free of her contract with Warner. Anitta responded by stating that “if there was a fine to pay, I would have already auctioned off my organs, no matter how expensive it was to get out. But unfortunately, there isn’t.”
Anitta joined Warner Music’s U.S. roster in January 2020 in partnership with Warner Music Latina. Around that time, she also renewed her contract with Warner Music Brazil, with which she first signed in 2013, and which owns her Portuguese-language music. According to Billboard, Anitta has previously said the label requires she produces two more albums for her contract to be complete.
Meanwhile, Anitta’s fans have mobilized online using hashtags like “WarnerRespectAnitta” and “WarnerFreeAnitta” to try to garner a response or action from Warner Records.
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