Rainhas do Norte

Rainhas do Norte (Queens of the North) are 9 women from Brazil and Germany who, together, create a band of drums and voices. United by their enthusiasm for the connection between the rich musical culture of northeastern Brazil and the street-beats of Berlin and Europe, they are driven to present this mixed music that they live and love to a larger audience. The traditional heavy maracatu-bass-drums, used in the maracatu-de-baque-virado-style at Recife’s carnival, only constitute the instrumental base of this band – on top of that, they mix maracatu, coco, baião and afoxé (traditional Afro-Brazilian beats) with funk, drum’n’bass and hip-hop to fuse and reconstruct ancient tradition with modern sound.

The band was founded in 2002 in Berlin by the percussionist Neide Alves, from Recife/Pernambuco (Brazil). As the band’s musical director, she uses the experience, knowledge and skills she acquired playing in many significant bands in her homeland, including the band Sagrama and the legendary carnival group Maracatu Nação Estrela Brillhante.

In their concerts, the Rainhas do Norte express their pleasure of playing together and inspire the audience to dance to their music. The songs vary in character, sound and instrumentation. The musicians frequently take turns with voices and instruments, playing alfaias (bass-drums), caixas (snare-drums), gonguê (great cow-bell), xequerê (rassel), timbal (hand-drum), ganzá (shaker), etc.

They have played already in many different places and occasions, such as the Berliner Carnival of the Cultures, at the Muvuca Afro-Brazilian Culture Collective (Berlin), at the famous club Pfefferberg (Berlin), at the legendary cultural-center Tacheles (Berlin), as well as at the internationally recognized Rudolstadt World Music Festival (Thüringen/Germany), in Poland and in Finnland. Now they want to go abroad, to inspire other people in the world and to get inspired themselves through other cultures.

Music is a melting pot.