Karol Conká

Born in Curitiba, Paraná on January 1st, 1986, Brazilian musician Karoline dos Santos Oliveira spent her early years mastering the art of rap, winning a school talent contest at sixteen and adopting the persona Karol Conká. Debuting with self-titled EP and a series of music video releases in the early 2000s, she later banded together with fellow emcees Cilho, Bigue and Cadelis to form the collective Agamenon, who released a relatively well-received mixtape. Continuing to enjoy the camaraderie and networking opportunities that came with the crew mentality, she joined another group, Upground, for two mixtapes before going her own way as a soloist. However, unexpectedly falling pregnant at nineteen years old, she decided to put her music career on ice to raise her baby son. Conká resurfaced via MySpace a few years on, releasing her second solo EP, PROMO, in 2011. Boosting her profile with the Protoja collaboration “Não Falem!”, she soon hit her stride, enjoying a major breakthrough with her 2013 mixtape Batuk Freak. Premiered via VICE, the free project led her to land an appearance on the FIFA 14 soundtrack with “Boa noite”, and she received a Multishow Award the same year. Garnering praise for her unequivocally feminist stance on social issues and her proud representation of the bisexual community, she subsequently came into her own as a leading figure in the Portugese-speaking rap scene, leaning into contemporary trends in reggaeton, afrobeats and trap on her infectious club bangers. After inking a deal with Sony, she returned in 2018 with a critically acclaimed debut album, Ambulante, and has since appeared in the 2021 Brazilian edition of reality TV show Big Brother.