IVANA WONDER DOESN’T FIT INTO A SINGLE ACT
Ivana Wonder is drawn to things that don’t fit perfectly into a category. Perhaps that is why her art finds so much strength precisely when it brings together references, eras, characters, and possibilities that, at first glance, might seem incompatible. The result is a language of her own, built somewhere between the delicacy of Brazilian music, the drama of rock, alternative pop, and an imagination that never seems satisfied with a single form.
“Primeiro Ato”, her debut album, comes from this place. Across eight tracks, it presents an artist fully immersed in the process of discovery, without the concern of choosing a single version of herself. The record features seven original compositions and a reinterpretation of “Quem Sabe” by Carlos Gomes, and functions less as a definitive introduction than as an invitation to discover the different women, characters, and sensibilities that can exist within Ivana Wonder.
Theatricality is part of the project’s DNA, but it appears in a way that is less literal than one might imagine. It is present in the construction of the atmospheres, in her taste for drama, in the way she interprets a song, and in the freedom to allow exaggeration to also become a form of beauty. It is in this territory that references such as Maysa, Ney Matogrosso, David Bowie, and PJ Harvey find their place—not as models to be reproduced, but as part of an artistic memory that helped Ivana develop her perspective.
The album also marks an important change in her trajectory. After years devoted to performance and music, including her work at the forefront of the duo Vermelho Wonder, she embraces songwriting as a central dimension of her artistic identity. Some of the songs began as poems, while others were born from experiences and images that remained inside her long enough to eventually find a melody.
Eight years separate the first ideas from the version that finally reached the public. It is a long interval for any record, but especially revealing when it comes to a work that needed to evolve alongside its creator’s own transformations. What we hear now is the result of a process in which the artist had time to change her mind, experiment with different paths, and gradually understand what she wanted to say.
“Melancholic Blue” anticipated part of this story. The track, which surpassed three million streams on Spotify, became one of Ivana’s best-known works and helped reveal the strength of her writing and interpretation to a wider audience. Within the album, however, it stops being a point of arrival and becomes part of a broader narrative in which different emotional and sonic states coexist.
There is also a kind of silent manifesto in the way Ivana occupies the stage. At a time when the expression “drag music” often seems to come with expectations around gender, aesthetics, and sound, she claims a broader freedom. Being a drag artist, in her journey, does not mean following a specific repertoire of possibilities, but having even more tools with which to invent new ones.
This multiplicity seems to be one of the most fascinating characteristics of her work. Ivana can inhabit Brazilian popular music and, in the very next moment, move closer to rock; she can be grand and vulnerable, sophisticated and kitsch, familiar and strange. The contradiction does not need to be resolved. It can simply exist.
Perhaps that is precisely why “Primeiro Ato” is such a fitting title. A first act does not need to explain the entire story. It introduces characters, establishes an atmosphere, and leaves some questions suspended before the next scene begins. For Ivana Wonder, there seems to be pleasure in remaining in that space. The pleasure of not yet knowing exactly what the next form will be, which voice will appear next, or how far a character can go when given the freedom to continue reinventing herself. For now, the lights are on. And Ivana is on stage.
FEATURE INTERVIEW:
After eight years of working on this album, what was it like to finally put it out into the world and let it become something that also belongs to the public?
After eight years of working on the record, it was really good to finally put it out into the world and, I think, in the end, that was the calmest moment of the whole process, which is incredible. I imagined it would be the moment when I would be the most anxious. People kept asking me if I was anxious, but I think the project had so many years of development and polishing behind it that it was also about knowing when to say, “Enough. Now is the time. This is when it needs to come out.”
But I was very calm and happy because there were really so many things, so many highs and lows, that I had to go through to arrive at this final result of “Primeiro Ato,” so many revolutions that needed to happen for it to exist, that I was very satisfied. It was a project in which I had to choose myself. I had to take initiative and say what I really wanted. I fought for it.
So, when it goes out into the world, I see it very happily, you know? I see this work leave my hands and become ready to follow new stories, mean different things, and take on new meanings in other people’s lives. That is the most beautiful thing.
“Melancholic Blue” surpassed three million streams. Did you imagine the song would reach so many people, and how has that response changed your relationship with it?
I didn’t imagine that “Melancholic Blue” would become as big as it is. It’s funny: I almost never released this song. It was kind of put away, still in its first demo, because I thought there was something about it that wasn’t working. About three years later, I picked the song back up to rework it, because my husband insisted. He really wanted me to release it because he thought it was very good. I liked it too, but I couldn’t find a solution for what still wasn’t working.
That was when Fábio Pinczowski entered the equation to produce it, and it gained the body that I felt it was missing. That’s when it really happened. Another important change was making a Portuguese version. Originally, I wrote the song in English, but then I rewrote the lyrics in Portuguese in collaboration with Lucas, my husband, adapting the meanings and everything else. I think that made a big difference because the song gained another body and another intention.
I love both versions, but the Portuguese version is more overwhelming for me, somehow. And I think all of this made me realize, perhaps for the first time, how powerful my work could be. In the sense of: “Wow, so many people like this. This really moves people.” Something that I wrote, that came from inside my heart. Anyway, I think that was the first time it really hit me: “Okay, what I do is good. I get it.”
After a decade of working as a drag artist, what do you feel you still want to discover about Ivana Wonder?
Wow, so, it’s funny, right? I think the life of a drag artist involves a constant evolution of who you are. At least, that’s how I see my life as Ivana. It’s a very unstable place, but that’s good because it allows me to move in many directions: experimenting with makeup, clothing, the tone of the songs, and the style of singing, you know? It’s a universe of experiences that takes me in many directions. And that’s good, in the end. I think these revolutions push me forward, creating forces that move me.
I still have a lot to discover with Ivana. What interests me most is understanding how to grow older doing what I do, using makeup, my voice, and my writing. I want to follow this face, this body, and this voice over time, while my mind matures and experiences other things. Sometimes I try to envision an older future for this persona.
You talk about wanting to experiment with different languages and not limit yourself artistically. What is the next territory that sparks your curiosity the most?
Well, I think “Primeiro Ato” has something very broad about it, with all kinds of sonic experimentation. For the next one, I want to explore something around a more specific sonic universe, which I already have somewhat in my head. I think the songs will move toward something more melodic and have some of these French chansons, you know? That French way of composing and creating music between the 1950s and 1960s, which I find very beautiful.
But there are also many other things that I listen to at the same time and think about, these sort of romantic ballads. I’m somewhat absorbed in the study of metric and harmonic structures, exploring possibilities that I find interesting for my next projects. It is an investigation that has been guiding what I am developing now.
If “Primeiro Ato” presents the Ivana who exists today, what would you like to see in the second act?
I think I would like to be able to go deeper into these feelings in the second act. I think my goal is to become increasingly less literal and to be able to encompass deeper themes, but in more open-ended ways. I have this experimentation, sometimes this slightly crazy desire to construct poems that almost don’t make sense, you know? Because I think that, in the end, feelings sometimes border on surrealism. Nothing is very straightforward. I like finding beauty in that.
But there is something else I would really like: to be able to write about everyday things. I have this desire, and also this difficulty with composing, and even in my poetry—not just when thinking about songs—to write about my everyday life, you know? I think it’s interesting to think of this as a record of a particular time. To think about how important it is to also document everyday life through music, poetry, art, and so on. So, perhaps those are some of the things I would like to flirt with in the second act.
TEAM CREDITS:
Editor-in-Chief: Prince Chenoa
Feature Editor: Taylor Winter Wilson (@taylorwinter)
Editor Brazil: Leonardo Loreto (@leonardoloreto)
Writer: Gillian Caetano (@gilliancaetano)
Fotografia: Gabriela Schmidt (@gabriela_schmdt)
Assistente de Foto: Renato Gonçalves Toso (@___toso)
Direção Criativa: Lucas Cobucci (@lucascobucci) , Marcelo Jarosz (@marcelojarosz)
Direção de Arte: Ana Arietti (@anaarietti) , Maju Camargo (@majmajuu)
Assistentes de Arte: Natã Martins (@natanmartins_)
Wardrobe Stylist: Maria Antonia Valladares (@mariaouantonia)
Costureira: Silvana Moura (@silmoura.iam)
Assessoria: Red Assessoria (@redimprensa)
