Photo Credit: Adrian Arredondo / CC by 3.0
Anitta says she’d ‘auction off her organs’ to get out of her Warner Music Group (WMG) deal.
Brazilian pop star Anitta vented on Twitter about her regrets about signing with Warner Music Group and that she would “auction off (her) organs” to get out of her contract. The artist had a bustling 2022 with the success of her album Versions of Me, a number-one track on the Billboard Global chart with “Envolver,” and performances at Coachella and the Latin Grammy Awards.
Fans of Anitta urged her to explain her sordid history with Warner Music, with one fan saying he wished she could be free of her contract. Anitta replied, “If there were a fine to pay, I would have already auctioned off my organs, no matter how expensive it was to get out. But unfortunately, there isn’t.”
“When you’re young and still don’t know a lot, you need to pay close attention to the things you sign,” Anitta continues. “If you don’t, you could spend a lifetime paying for the mistake.”
Anitta signed with Warner Music in the US in January 2020 after signing with Warner Music Brazil in 2013. Under her US contract, she produced Versions of Me, executive produced by Ryan Tedder. Anitta says she must deliver two more albums for the label to satisfy the contract. Anitta also signed a publishing deal with Sony Music Publishing in January 2022.
The artist has previously taken shots at Warner, having complained about having to pay for music videos out of her own pocket, including “Gata,” for which she says Warner refused to produce a video after they saw the song’s performance on streaming platforms falling below expectations. Ultimately, Anitta says she got a sponsor to help pay for the “Gata” video.
“They only invest after it pays off on the internet,” she said in her Instagram livestream in May. “Unfortunately, there are things I can’t get; that’s why I don’t buy millionaire cars because when I want to do something, I pay for it.”
Anitta also said that Warner only invests in her work after a song goes viral on TikTok, that the label is “very tied to TikTok, to what goes viral, and if they don’t get a hit right away, they say ‘later.’”
Additionally, Anitta says that Warner had resisted the release of “Envolver” until her dance in the song’s video — which she directed — became a global TikTok sensation.
“They said the song wasn’t going anywhere and that I wouldn’t have the sway to release it alone (without a feature on the track),” she said during an Instagram livestream in December.
Her fans have also been critical of Warner for the label’s perceived treatment of the singer. Many complained on social media that Warner did not give her 2021 single “Girl From Rio” the marketing push they felt that it deserved by including it in playlists on streaming services.
Anitta’s fans have been urging her to release a funk remix of her song “Practice,” which she recorded with A$AP Ferg and HARV — but the singer said that Warner wouldn’t allow her to do so.
“When I saw that you liked (the remix version), I asked to release it, and it has been a long time,” the singer told her fans on Twitter. “But things can only be released with their authorization.”
Fans have since organized a #FreeAnitta movement on Twitter, with one fan asking if her harsh comments might damage her relationship with the label.
“Is there a way it could get worse?” Anitta replied.