Vanessa has one of the most powerful voices on Ipanema Beach, and when she shouts announcing her açaí, singing her own funk parodies, it’s impossible not to hear her even from a distance. Wherever she goes, shouting at the top of her lungs and dancing with contagious energy, she is applauded: “gorgeous!”, “marvelous!” It’s as if singing on the beach, her own private theater, as she describes it, is her remedy. After all, singing drives away her troubles. Vanessa cured herself of deep depression after her doctor recommended her to go to the beach. Sitting on the sand, she came up with the idea of selling esfihas (Levantine pastries) and later açaí – with countless toppings, such as powdered milk, condensed milk, paçoca (peanut sweet), banana, granola, honey… and fruit salad, “so you can pretend to be fitness,” she jokes with her customers. The success of her parodies was so great that it ended up on the internet, with the help of two DJs who recorded Vanessa in the studio. “It became the ‘funk of açaí’ and already has over 5 million views,” she says. Ludmilla, Anitta, and Valeska, watch out!