Kaya Conky Finds New Layers Between Desire and Intimacy
Kaya Conky is part of a generation of drag singers who have helped expand the boundaries of Brazilian pop music. A star of the scene, the artist has built an identity shaped by funk, performance, and a provocative aesthetic. Now, with her new album, MARIA BOA, she reveals a more intimate version of herself without leaving behind the sensuality that has accompanied her throughout her journey.
The album is born from a process of artistic maturation and transforms feelings, relationships, family, friendships, doubts, and desires into raw material. For the first time, Kaya makes room for subjects that go beyond the realm of romance and reveal the layers behind the persona her audience knows.
Musically, this expansion also takes on new forms. Funk remains at the center, but meets house, dancehall, pop, and rap in a diverse, danceable, and surprising repertoire. The artist experiments without losing her signature, creating a body of work that sounds familiar while, at the same time, pointing toward new paths.
The inspiration for the title comes from Natal, the city where Kaya was born. Maria Boa, a businesswoman and owner of one of the most emblematic cabarets in local history, became the starting point for a reflection on sensuality, strength, and autonomy. By looking at this figure, Kaya finds a way to connect her own journey to the stories that run through her city.
This identity from Rio Grande do Norte also appears in the project’s visual universe, created by creative director Brunna Vini. Five of the ten tracks receive visuals that blend references to Natal’s culture with the imagery already associated with the artist, creating a narrative that extends beyond the music.
Between beats, memories, and confessions, Kaya Conky does not leave behind the Kayacita that her audience has learned to celebrate. She simply opens new doors through which to get to know her.
FEATURE INTERVIEW:
This new project presents a more intimate and mature version of Kaya, revealing feelings and experiences that had not yet appeared in this way in her music. What do you feel has changed in the artist who entered the studio to create this album?
I tend to have a very immersive relationship with my thoughts and perspectives on the world, but this has always been something I experienced alone, within the boundaries I defined as intimate and personal. But when I began building this album, I wanted to bring these relationships and perspectives into Kaya’s sphere, and that meant taking them out of the intimate and bringing them to the surface, turning this personal aspect into the construction of something collective, and that’s how the process unfolded. In addition to exploring narratives I was already familiar with, such as vanity, ego, and desire, I also talked about my family, my anxiety, and my relationship with my thoughts. When I entered the studio to make MARIA BOA, I wanted to give Kaya a soul.
Maria Boa is a very significant historical figure in Natal. What fascinated you most about her story, and at what point did you realize that this character could become a language for your own work?
Maria Boa redirected the course of things through her approach to the cabaret she opened and the girls who worked for her, encouraging them to consume art, learn languages, take etiquette classes, and wear elegant clothing, positioning them outside of it as any other woman from high society. From there, Natal witnessed a business built around the autonomy of the female body and desire, led by an independent woman who existed outside the norms of society, gaining notoriety and the respect of important names in politics and on the international scene. This journey, which began in such a subversive way, has a lot to do with the paths that the LGBTQIA+ community and drag culture navigate in their worlds, and especially with working with art as a means of making a living. I consider this the greatest intersection between these narratives. That’s where everything came together for me.
You have always had funk as one of the foundations of your identity, but now you expand this universe into sounds such as house, dancehall, pop, and rap. Is there any genre you discovered during this process that you would like to explore even more in the future?
Reggae! It’s a sound that I already love and listen to a lot, and I even considered doing something in that vein for the album, but it ended up not happening, so what remained was the desire to explore it on a future project.
The album also gained a very strong visual component, with five tracks accompanied by visuals. When you imagine a song, does the image usually come to you at the same time, or does the visual side come later?
I usually have imagined scenarios for every track I’m going to write. It’s almost always my first step when creating a song. After everything materializes and the track is finished, I share the atmosphere I had in mind when thinking about that track, and together with the final result it reached, I put it in the hands of the creative team so they can create their own interpretation of that work. That’s why the professional responsible for this process is so important to the soul of the album, and the work Brunna Vini did directing this record gave even more life and a beautiful form to everything I was bringing to life!
After introducing this new chapter to the public, what are the next steps? Can you already imagine how this phase might come to life on stage in a possible tour?
This whole moment has been a great opportunity to explore new paths with my art. I’m very excited about it because I feel like I have so much inside me that I’ve been wanting to put out into the world, but I still didn’t quite know how. The idea now is to keep expanding the sonic and narrative repertoire more and more and explore places that allow me to communicate in new ways, bringing new ideas.
If you could spend an entire day living the routine of any character from a movie, series, or cartoon, who would it be and what would you do first?
There’s a series I LOVE called Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, which presents, in a somewhat exaggerated way, the perspective that everything is destined to happen. Dirk Gently is a holistic detective who lives life without a specific direction, being guided by fate to uncover and solve cases involving people and situations he has never encountered. I love this idea of life as an immutable predetermined destiny and of us as part of an involuntary movement, where we believe we have control over things when, in reality, we are pieces on a chessboard. It makes the way I see the world much more interesting, haha. So I would be Dirk and go out into the world to see where chance would take me, haha!
If Kaya Conky had to open a business completely outside the music world, what would it be and why?
A breakfast and afternoon-snack restaurant by the beach somewhere along the coast of northeastern Brazil!
TEAM CREDITS:
Editor-in-Chief: Prince Chenoa
Feature Editor: Taylor Winter Wilson (@taylorwinter)
Editor Brazil: Leonardo Loreto (@leonardoloreto)
Writer: Gillian Caetano (@gilliancaetano)
Photographer: MURACA (@muraca___)
Assistant Photographers: Pedro Leme (@opedroparis), Wendel (@wendellhs)
Models: Aaron (@aaron.florambell) , Bakary (@bakxry), Bruno (@allmeidb) and Caio Morilon (@caio.morilion)
Photography Retouching: Victor Wagner (@vwretouch)
Flim & Creative Direction: Brunna Vini (@brunna.vini)
Wardrobe Stylist & Creative Direction: Borgeth (@borgethh)
Assistant Wardrobe Stylist & Fashion Producer: Vugaratto (@vugaratto)
Art Direction: Gagum Silvestre (@gagumsilvestre)
Assistant Director: Guilherme Severino (@gu1lhwrme)
Film Director: Mateus Lara (@mateusdlara)
Film Assistant: Jadilson Lima (@jadilsonlimaa)
Set Design: Madson Jr. (@maadjr) and Cedric Rolemberg (@cedric.rolemberg)
Set Design Assistants: Guilherme Veneral (@guilhermeveneral) , Bia Ferraz (@biaajpeg) , Lucas Motta (@ldamotta)
Producer: David Jonnes (@jonjonnes)
Makeup Artist: Marina (@m431n4)
Assistant Makeup Artist: Alikah Rosa (@alikah.r)
Hair Stylist: Henrique Butcher (@henriquebutcher)
Set Painter: Doug Reder (@rederdoug)
Public Relations: Pedro Paulo (@redcrowing)
Management: Caju Soma (@cajusoma)
