Bio

FORMOSAH 

Brazilian Tâmera Vinhas returns to her artistic life with a musical profile full of versatility and emphasizing the political side of her art.

Tâmera Vinhas started making music as a way to express herself culturally and artistically amidst the restrictions experienced by immigrants, such as language difficulties, visa problems, and the challenge of getting a job. After purging these hardships through rhythms such as maracatu and funk, she now turns to a new profile: Formosah!

Formosah is the sum of all the musical places Tâmera Vinhas has ever occupied. She grew up in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. She graduated in law and soon after went on an exchange as an Au Pair in Hamburg, Germany, to take care of children. In 2013, she moved to Berlin, where she ended up staying. In the beginning, Tâmera performed with the group Sambada de Coco, making music from the northeast of Brazil in the German capital. At the time, she used the stage name Tâmera Bak, chosen because ‘Bak’ refers to the maracatu beat. Soon after, she founded the group La By’le, which mixed rhythms such as funk, hip-hop, and rap to sing, with humor, the strangeness of being a person living in a foreign country. La By’le’s shows were true performances, in which Formosah thought about every detail to transform songs like “Kottibuceta” and “Total Broke” into parties celebrating the life of Brazilian immigrants in Germany.

Now, in this new phase, Formosah means the beginning of a solo career, but also a possibility of partnerships with artists of the most different styles. Besides funk and maracatu, Tâmera wants to play ciranda, MPB, pop music, acoustic with voice and guitar. Without divisions by musical profile, taking advantage of what each genre has to offer.

Formosah musical references begin in the samba of Leci Brandão and Teresa Cristina, go through the soul of Elza Soares, and reach the umbanda houses with Rita Benneditto, Sergio Pererê, and Déa Trancoso. In the pop world, she is inspired by Whitney Houston and Beyoncé. Besides, there are funk carioca references from her adolescence, such as MC Carol, Deize Tigrona, and Tati Quebra Barraco.

Formosah is the fruit of reflections that emerged during the pandemic, but not only. The musical influences from other cultures, which are very present in Berlin, have contributed to this profile focused on mixture and diversity. And it is also an accentuation of the political side of Tâmera Vinhas. The first single, “A Way Out,” is about domestic violence. With her music, Formosah wants to propose actions to question society.