Pagode Por Elas: a platform to strengthen the presence of women in the Bahian pagode

Credit: Personal Collection

By: Eduarda Nunes / Lupa do Bem – Favela em Pauta

Journalism students identified this issue and, today, already graduated, they take care of the official platform of women in the Bahian pagode. The “Pagode Por Elas” aims to strengthen these singers, who have a very important role in the expansion of the pagode inside and outside the state.

From the course conclusion work (TCC) in 2019, Beatriz Almeida, Joyce Melo, Giovana Marques and Tainá Goes, began to facilitate the amplification of female voices in pagodão. From the creation of a scientific article and a multimedia report, accompanied by a miniseries and a podcast on the subject, a platform was born that intends to follow what they call the New Decade of the Baiano Pagodão.

This time, made by them and with our face, as the slogan states.

“We started sniffing out the market opportunity when we created Instagram. In less than a month and with a photo posted, we hit a thousand followers. We were like ‘hey, people need this here’. I didn’t have it, but people want it”, says Beatriz, who is now the project’s project manager.

The article they created was the first scientific production that brings women to the forefront of the scene. All the references they sought in the research always brought women into a secondary role or objectification.

They were the “piriguetes”, who were there enjoying the dance or the dancers. Currently, the report serves as a kind of glossary for those interested in the topic.

The then students accompanied Dama do Pagode, Fernanda Maia, Daiana Leone, Rai Ferreira and Aila Menezes to make the first diagnosis about the position of women who sing in the scene.

Currently, Beatriz and Joyce, who is the CEO, with the reinforcement of interns Jéssica Barreto and Adriane Silva, continue the project.

The journalist reports that “the pagode is a genre that has a lot of difficulty in professionalizing careers”. “Different from others that are already a little further ahead, the pagode still goes through several other processes, many of them associated with being a peripheral genre”, she says.

After starting mentoring with Diver.SSA, a startup that strategically welcomes women’s businesses from the North and Northeast regions, Pagode Por Elas started working on some fronts. One of them is the education, strengthening and promotion of women singers from the Bahian pagode and other genres.

In addition, they aim to be a channel of information and research on the subject for other vehicles, in addition to promoting training events, business acceleration and musicals.

Co-creation and diversity consultancy for big brands that intend to deal with pagodão is also part of the platform’s scope of work. “For those who want to guide the Bahian pagode more assertively, we offer our research data, because, in short, we have been researching within the Bahian pagode with real data for three years. So, we can take a more strategic look”, defends Beatriz.

This is an initiative that has had a series of impacts since the beginning. Only research and production as a course conclusion work have already brought new perspectives of media visibility to the singers of the Bahian pagode, and opportunities have begun to emerge. Today some of them are even connected with brands.

After this initial reception, Beatriz and Joyce defined that a new decade of Bahian pagode was started and that Pagode Por Elas will accompany and record everything.

The projection is that, at the end of these ten years, names from the scene can gain national visibility. “It’s a thriving market, an ecosystem that feeds back, and is sustainable. Our goal is to metrify all this because our research part is very strong. We have measured the impact of Pagode Por Elas since the beginning”, says Beatriz.

She still promises: “probably, at the end of these ten years, there will be a new documentary there”.