Tulipa Ruiz

(BR)

Tulipa Ruiz is one of those artists who bursts onto the scene like a splash of colour in a grey room: a singer, songwriter and illustrator, she has become one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Brazilian music, bringing to the stage an urban, emotional and fantastical Brazil, full of creatures, twisted loves and resilient joys. At the crossroads between MPB, pop and a certain tropical psychedelia, her universe is at once intimate and expansive, domestic and cosmic.

Born in São Paulo and raised in Minas Gerais, Tulipa grew up surrounded by music: her father, Luiz Chagas, a legendary guitarist with Vanguarda Paulista, and a home where records, drawings and words circulated freely. Music, at home, was not a choice: it was the air she breathed. Before establishing herself as a singer, she worked in newsrooms, did design and illustration, and cultivated her eye and ear. It was only later, as an adult, that she began to perform her songs on small stages, as if slowly testing a secret. This late blossoming lends her work a curious maturity: it feels like a debut and a synthesis at the same time.

Her breakthrough came with ‘Efêmera’ (2010), a debut album that immediately put her on the map of new Brazilian music, followed by ‘Tudo Tanto’, ‘Dancê’ and other works that earned her awards, collaborations and a fanbase spread across the globe. Throughout this journey, she has shared studios and stages with names such as Metá Metá, Criolo, Céu and Marcelo Camelo, among many others, weaving a network of connections and exchanges that also serves as a map of the contemporary scene. His influences range from the giants of MPB (Gal, Caetano, Milton) to international pop, alternative rock and childhood songs, filtered through a humour and sensibility all his own.

Tulipa coined the term ‘forest pop’ for herself, inspired by a childhood spent amidst the countryside, waterfalls and guitar circles. Half São Paulo, half Minas Gerais, this tension between the urban and the organic runs through all her work. Her voice is at the heart of it all: a striking timbre, with pronounced vibrato, capable of shifting from whispers to shouts, from tenderness to defiance, without losing her identity. Her influences are as unconventional as she is: Gal Costa and Joni Mitchell, Meredith Monk and Yoko Ono, Manoel de Barros and Robert Crumb.

In 2022, Habilidades Extraordinárias revealed a transformed artist: recorded on analogue magnetic tape, the album flirts with rock, soul and funk, featuring experimental and combative lyrics, in close dialogue with São Paulo’s independent scene. The duet O Recado da Flor with João Donato unexpectedly became one of the master’s final recordings. A farewell that is also a passing of the torch.

Tulipa Ruiz embodies one of the most fertile strands of contemporary Brazilian music: the ability to speak of intimate and collective themes with lightness, depth and charm. At MED, so-called ‘forest pop’ takes shape: the songs expand, breathe, take on a new rhythm, and her voice becomes even more magnetic. Because, for her, the stage is a sacred place, one of power and experimentation.