Rodrigo Amarante

Rodrigo Amarante is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Rio de Janeiro, now based in the United States, known for a career spanning bands and solo work across several countries and languages. He came up through the Rio rock scene with Los Hermanos, one of Brazilian rock’s most beloved groups of the late 1990s and 2000s, later co-founding the orchestral pop collective Orquestra Imperial and the indie-pop trio Little Joy alongside Fabrizio Moretti and Binki Shapiro.

His solo debut, «Cavalo», released in Brazil in 2013 and internationally in 2014, showcased a gentler, more introspective songwriting style built on acoustic textures, Brazilian rhythmic sensibility and a warm, intimate vocal delivery, sung across Portuguese, English, French and Spanish. The album’s standout, «Tuyo», gained wide recognition after becoming the theme song for the Netflix series Narcos, introducing his work to a global audience far beyond his earlier band projects.

Amarante’s music moves fluidly between Brazilian popular tradition, folk balladry and understated rock arrangements, marked by literate lyricism and a restless, genre-crossing curiosity. Across his output with Los Hermanos, Orquestra Imperial, Little Joy and as a solo artist, he has built a reputation as one of the more distinctive and internationally minded voices to emerge from Brazil’s contemporary music scene.