Brazilian Baco Exu do Blues Wins Award in Cannes, Pipping Beyoncé and Jay-Z Film

By Arkady Petrov

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The rapper from Bahia, Baco Exu do Blues, won the Grand Prix of the Cannes Lions festival, one of the most important in the advertising market, with the short film “Bluesman” from his eponymous album.

The prize was awarded in the Entertainment for the Music category, which saw two winners in 2019 — in addition to Baco’s video, the praised and discussed “This is America” by rapper Childish Gambino, was also a winner. They won out over the “Apeshit” mega-production by Beyoncé and Jay-Z, filmed at the Louvre Museum.

Curiously, in one of the “Bluesman” tracks, “Me desculpa Jay-Z” (“Forgive me Jay-Z”), Baco sings about wanting to be the American rapper and admits to having erotic dreams about Beyoncé.

“Bluesman”, a short film directed by Douglas Ratzlaff Bernardt, contains three of the album’s songs and was produced in partnership with Coala.lab, AKQA, Stink, and 999.

“The first thing that came into my mind when I heard the news was how important this was to national rap. To see Brazilian rap coming, competing with foreign rap and earning a place among them is very impressive,” Baco said in a statement. “Also, the fact that a film with a black discourse, with a black cast and which portrays the blacks’ fragility and strength, can win an award of this magnitude while being Brazilian rap is mindblowing.”

Released in November, the film has 1.5 million views on YouTube.

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