Dora Morelenbaum brings new Brazilian sound wave to Seoul

Brazilian singer-songwriter Dora Morelenbaum, left, and guitarist Guilherme Lirio perform during Morelenbaum's first concert in Seoul, Thursday. The show marked the opening of her Asia tour. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

A soft bossa nova breeze swept through western Seoul Thursday night as Brazilian singer-songwriter Dora Morelenbaum brought her genre-blurring sound to Korea for the first time, opening her Asia tour at a small venue in Hongdae.

The concert at West Bridge Live Hall offered Korean listeners a rare chance to experience contemporary Brazilian music up close on a spring weeknight.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1996, Morelenbaum is one of the most closely watched artists among Brazil’s new wave of musicians redefining Música Popular Brasileira (MPB).

The daughter of cellist-arranger Jaques Morelenbaum and vocalist Paula Morelenbaum, who both performed with bossa nova legend Antônio Carlos Jobim and collaborated with the late Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, she grew up in a household where music was an everyday language rather than a separate profession.

“My parents are musicians and that took a big part of my musical formation,” she said in an interview with The Korea Times before the show. “When I was little, I traveled a lot with my family for their shows. I was always surrounded by music.”

Her professional debut came in 2021 as part of Bala Desejo, a Rio-based quartet whose kaleidoscopic sound drew on bossa nova, samba, tropicália and psychedelic pop. The group’s 2022 debut album, “Sim Sim Sim,” won the Latin Grammy Award for best Portuguese language contemporary pop album, catapulting the young band to international festival stages before it disbanded in 2024.

Morelenbaum launched her solo career in parallel, releasing the EP “Vento de Beirada” in 2021 and earning early praise as “the future of Brazilian music” from critics who singled out her ability to bridge tradition and experimentation.

That promise crystallized on “Pique,” her 2024 debut full-length album, which earned a Latin Grammy nomination for best MPB album.

On record and onstage, she threads together Brazil’s musical heritage — bossa nova, samba and MPB — with jazz, soul, R&B and disco, blending them into a fluent, contemporary sound. She describes her music as mirroring Brazil itself, where many genres coexist and naturally mix with outside influences. “In Brazil, we have millions of different genres and it happens all very naturally, mixed with outer influences,” she said. “I think artists of Brazil’s new music scene are also doing a lot of this.”

Thursday’s performance, presented by indie label and record shop Gimbab Records, was stripped down to an intimate voice-and-guitar duo. The show was part of the curator-driven label’s ongoing series spotlighting Brazil’s new wave of artists.

A poster for Dora Morelenbaum’s concert in Korea and the lineup for “Sound of Brazil,” a Brazilian New Wave music showcase organized by Gimbab Records, are displayed at the entrance of the Gimbab Records store in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Morelenbaum performed with guitarist Guilherme Lirio, filling the compact Hongdae venue with a set that leaned heavily on “Pique” while leaving space for surprises. Her soft yet focused mezzo-soprano — at once mellow, melancholic and energetic — floated over Lirio’s agile guitar lines.

Despite the language barrier, the atmosphere quickly turned communal.

Between songs, Morelenbaum spoke warmly to the crowd, at one point admitting, “I already miss you,” drawing cheers and laughter from fans. During one highlight, she introduced “Petricor,” a song about “the smell of rain.” The two musicians turned the guitar body into a percussion instrument, mimicking falling raindrops while she sang over the rhythmic taps. As the piece ended, a wave of “wow” and excited chatter broke out across the packed room in response to the inventive performance.

The setlist showcased not only her own songwriting but also her sense of musical community. Alongside tracks from “Pique” and a yet-unreleased new song written during this tour, they performed a piece in an Indigenous Amazonian language, underscoring the duo’s interest in Brazil’s diverse musical roots.

Morelenbaum also paid tribute to her influences with covers such as Bobby Charles’ “I Must Be in a Good Place Now” and João Donato’s beloved “Até Quem Sabe?” A song she wrote under the spell of Sakamoto’s work, “Japão,” nodded to the Japanese composer who taught her “the universality of music.”

Brazilian singer-songwriter Dora Morelenbaum, left, and guitarist Guilherme Lirio smile at fans after Morelenbaum's first concert in Korea in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Morelenbaum said she felt “emotional” to be starting her first Asia tour in Seoul, the gateway to a circuit that will take her to China, Taiwan and Japan.

Morelenbaum said she discovered unexpected parallels between her home country and Korea during her brief stay in Seoul, despite the distance between them.

She believes both nations are “going through an important moment culturally,” adding, “The world is giving a lot of cultural attention to the two countries. I feel the motives are different, but it’s interesting for me to understand how these cultural forces are growing and how they are different.”

She and Lirio also joked that Koreans and Brazilians both cook with “a lot of garlic,” saying they enjoyed exploring local dishes and were particularly fond of kimchi jeon, or kimchi pancake. The singer said she hopes to return for another show in Korea soon, continuing the cross-cultural conversation she has only just begun with local audiences.