Rebujo

As energised as guaraná, as saucy as a Sid James laugh, as sultry as samba at sunset on a tropical beach… Dona Onete may be pushing 80, her voice may be quavering but she's still fabulous fun. This is music to make you smile. Opener ‘Festa do Tubarão’ will have you swinging where you sit. The staccato beats of ‘Mexe Mexe’ will have you dancing. And when the CD ends – with the seductive lilt of ‘Galante Sedutor’, you'll be searching the internet for flights to Marajó – Onete's beach-fringed island home in the mouth of the Amazon.

But upbeat though it is, Rebujo is not all celebration. Brazil is passing through a difficult period. The reactionary new president Jair Bolsonaro threatens everything Onete stands for – the roots culture of the Afro-Brazilian and indigenous people that make up the vast bulk of the population, the LGBTQ community whom the singer championed on her song ‘Na Linha do Arco-Íris’ (now a gay anthem in Brazil) and the Amazon itself, which Bolsonaro promises to open up to mining and soya-farming multinationals.

Choosing to celebrate the culture of poor riverine and indigenous people from the Amazon (on tracks like ‘Tambor do Norte’) and the beauty of marginalised black women from the favelas (on ‘Musa da Babilônia’) is political in Bolsonaro's Brazil. These are the Brazilians we must celebrate, champion, protect. “We're messed up,” Onete said in a recent interview, “I'm dedicated to fighting for my culture.”

Rebujo maybe a call to the dance floor, but it's also a call to arms.