Culture

Netflix’s Elité: Anitta joins the cast for season 7

By Sam Damshenas

9th March 2023

Photo: Netflix

Brazilian singer-songwriter Anitta will star in the upcoming seventh season of Elité.

Netflix confirmed her casting on Thursday (9 March), tweeting: “A “Girl from Rio” is about to arrive at Las Encinas.”

One of her home country’s most trailblazing artists, Anitta became the first Brazilian and Latin American artist to reach number-one on Spotify’s global chart with a solo song, as well as the first Brazilian to win an MTV VMA and American Music Award.

Her acclaimed fifth studio album Versions of Me, featuring artists such as Saweetie, Cardi B and Missy Elliott, also broke records; making history as the first Brazilian pop album to reach a billion streams on Spotify.

Anitta’s success resulted in a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist earlier this year.

Netflix is yet to confirm details on Anitta’s character or how heavily she will be involved in Elité. The bisexual singer’s previous live-action credits include the parody film Copa de Elite and the Brazilian telenovela Amor de Mãe.

The seventh season of the scandalous teen drama will see the return of Omar Ayuso as his beloved character Omar Shanaa.

“[The producers] suggested that I return and I agreed. I’ve come back from a personal place, I’m enjoying working on this series more than ever,” Ayuso previously told GAY TIMES, before joking that Netflix would “fire” him “outright” if he spilled any information on his highly-anticipated comeback.

As per, the new season will welcome an array of new actors including Mirela Balic, Gleb Abrosimov, Fernando Líndez, Iván Mendes, Alejandro Albarracín and Maribel Verdú.

Sadly, Manu Ríos will not be joining them.

The actor behind Patrick Blanco announced his departure in December, telling fans: “Although Elite has been an incredible experience, and I am very grateful for everything it has brought, there are also times when it is necessary to move on from that stage, change the page, and do other things.”

As is the case with each season of Elite, season seven will continue to explore systemic racism, sexism and LGBTQ+-phobia at Las Encinas, with sex, drugs and – of course – another mysterious, bloody tragedy for extra measure. 

Elité is now available to stream on Netflix.