VMAs 2022: Anitta Is a First-Time Nominee, But She’s Performed At the Show Before

Brazilian pop star Anitta has risen to the top of the Latin music world in recent years. The “Downtown” singer has garnered several awards and nominations since she entered the music industry nearly a decade ago, including a nod at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.

Anitta performed at the 2021 MTV VMAs

Anitta will be performing at the 2022 MTV VMAs, but it won’t be the first time the Rio de Janeiro-bred singer takes the stage at the ceremony.

In 2021, Anitta appeared at the VMAs to perform her hit song “Girl From Rio.” The song, which naturally interpolates the classic hit “The Girl From Ipanema,” was the second single from her 2022 album Versions of Me. The song, combined with Versions of Me‘s lead single “Me Gusta” with Cardi B, introduced her to wider audiences around the world.

Anitta is nominated for Best Latin at the 2022 VMAs

Anitta will once again perform at the 2022 MTV VMAs at New Jersey’s Prudential Center. In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, she released two new tracks with Maluma and Missy Elliott, titled “El Que Espera” and “Lobby,” respectively, and it remains to be seen what song she’ll perform at the VMAs.

Anitta has already made her mark on this year’s VMAs: the singer is nominated for the Best Latin award for her single “Envolver.” In March of 2022, “Envolver” reached the top of the Spotify Global Top 50 chart, making her the first Brazilian artist and the first Latin female artist with a solo song to achieve the feat. 

Her crossover appeal has continued to reach new heights, as she was a guest judge on the hit HBO Max competition series Legendary in 2022.

She gets nervous to meet other stars

Despite being a global superstar, Anitta still gets nervous around other celebrities. In 2019, she collaborated with Madonna for the song “Faz Gostoso” from Madge’s album Madame X. In an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, she admitted that meeting the pop icon for a studio session was incredibly nerve- (and gut-) wracking.

“I was super nervous to see her, right? I was, like, freaking out at first. I mean, Madonna in the studio… I was freaking out,” she said. “Thank God, I got there 20 minutes before her, because I was so nervous, it became crazy diarrhea. You know when you get nervous and your stomach starts?” Cohen deemed it “Madonnarrhea.”

“I went to the bathroom,” she continued. “And thank God she came after so she couldn’t notice that was happening before she was there. And then I pretended it was super fine. Oh, super normal scene.”

When Anitta met another one of her biggest idols, Mariah Carey, she was similarly starstruck — without the gastrointestinal issues.“I didn’t get diarrhea, that’s amazing,” she said. “But I freaked out, I was frozen because she was the first singer I’ve ever heard in my life.”