A Banda Mais Bonita da Cidade – An Internet Phenomenom
26 May, 2011A Banda Mais Bonita da Cidade are a band from Curitiba in the South of Brazil. Until last week they were relatively unknown outside of their home city. Now, they are officially an internet phenomenom, all thanks to their latest video.
On May 17th they released the video for their new song “Oração.” In the nine days since, the video has been watched a phenomenal 2.3 million times! And it keeps rising! So why are so many people going crazy for this video? Well, first, let’s take a look at the clip in question:
So one of the obvious reasons this thing’s been doing so well is the fact that the video offers a new idea, one where the music can be recorded live, at the time of filming, and where the musicians involved can continually change, making the dynamics of the song a story in it’s self. There’s also the obvious exuberance of the musicians involved, who are clearly having the time of their lives, especially the drummer with a dog on his lap!
However, I think one of the most important factors in this video’s success is the fact that it’s something of a homage to Beirut and the love for which many Brazilians have for the band. Just check out Beirut’s Facebook page or read about Beirutando and you’ll start to understand the profound admiration many people from Brazil have for the band. The fact that “Oração” clearly taps into a style reminiscent of the American band has surely helped in their success.
The media in Brazil have already labelled A Banda Mais Bonita da Cidade as being at the centre of a Novos Curitibanos musical movement, a parallel indie movement to the Novos Paulistas scene happening in São Paulo (featuring Tulipa Ruiz, Dudu Tsuda, Tiê, Thiago Pethit and others). It’ll be interesting to see what more comes of the band. This is the third video they’ve released on Youtube and by far the most popular. They’ve already got a gig in São Paulo off the back of it. Let’s see where else it takes them.
The fact that parody versions of the video have already been submitted shows just how much impact their video has had:
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