Urias: “Sweating is a way to expel bad things from the body and head” –

To the sound of dance music on a mild day in São Paulo (which has been a rarity this spring), the singer Uriah put on a show. She threw her leg in the air wearing stiletto heels, kicked and punched while imitating boxing postures, lifted weights… But, no, this wasn’t the cat’s everyday workout – it was her October cover shoot. Good shape, which perfectly captured the singer’s love of fitness.

Giving due credit to Urias’ fitness, she got up that day at 5:30 am to go to the gym before the rehearsal (“I’m going to be on the cover of , right?!”, she joked) and didn’t lose her breath. at any time – not even when sitting down to talk about his trajectory.

Diesel jacket; Body Hope; Yves Saint Laurent shoes; Hector Albertazzi Jewelry (Camila Tuon/)

With a career that mixes music, dance and fashion, Uriah became a successful reference for the LGBTQIA+ community. As a trans woman, she has reached places that others like her never dreamed of being possible, but she gives an important message: she hopes, one day, to no longer be limited by the weight of the acronym and hopes to move around the world as a woman who sings, who dances, who , in short, she is a person like everyone else, with dreams, desires, who doesn’t mind going without makeup and with a diet that, turns and moves, gets out of the routine.

Check out our chat with the singer below.

Top Adidas; Hotpant Hope Resort; Yeezy foam Adidas; Gabriella Araujo earrings for Galeria Alice Floriano; Luza Rias Joyas Rings for Galeria Alice Floriano (Camila Tuon/)

Urias, shall we start talking about well-being? Today, what do you consider well-being?

Uriah: Oh, a lot! It’s not just being well with your body, with your appearance, but it has a lot to do with comfort, safety, where you travel, where you are, where you work… Where you put your voice. Knowing that you are speaking and being heard, and also understanding yourself, knowing yourself, in society as a whole.

I also feel really good when my room is very tidy… It’s just that it’s really hard to keep it! It is also related to when I manage to be in that space, in my room, alone, playing my music, applying my skincare products, noticing myself, looking at myself, looking for defects – and sometimes finding them, sometimes not! -, I think those moments alone are very important to me.

Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with music? Have you always wanted to be a singer?

Uriah: I always wanted to be a singer. But, along the way, many things happened, it became a kind of impossible dream. I put that aside for a bit, but when the first opportunity arose, I embraced it. I also had, on the internet, my friends who always supported me and things were happening.

What do you mean by “things happened”?

Uriah: It’s always been seen as an unattainable dream for us, it’s not for everyone. Growing up, it was like wanting to be a soccer player or a ballet dancer but not being in soccer or ballet school. Because I wasn’t already included in this world, I thought I wouldn’t achieve this, even more so in Uberlândia, growing up with Sandy & Júnior… it seemed that I had to start very young in this field. And things kept happening, academic life, more tangible and achievable dreams… I didn’t see it as a possibility to have an income and make a living from music and art.

Top Collection; Short Diesel; Yves Saint Laurent Sandal; Hector Albertazzi Earrings; Iron Arm bandage and rope (Camila Tuon/)

You also have a history with dancing. How was this trajectory?

Uriah: I started dancing when I was 6 years old, and dance was always present, even when I moved away from this world, I was always involved in dance groups, theater groups… On my own birthdays! And I always wanted it to be there, the dance was always there. It was a way of reminding me where I had to go back.

By the way, you also have a very strong relationship with fashion, you even passed the entrance exam for Fashion Design… can you tell us a little bit about that?

Uriah: Since I was a little girl, I drew many sketches with a friend. We put the papers together and started drawing, “today I’m going to design an outfit like this”, “a woman in this theme”… So, I always had this contact, this touch with fashion, I just never thought I’d be a model! But it also happened. Then, when I was 16, when I was at the end of my second year, I applied for the vestibular and passed, through ProUni. I just didn’t do it because I had all the paperwork, I had to emancipate myself, to enter before the age. It ended up not happening, but I had another contact with fashion through modeling, runway shows and photos for magazines. It wasn’t something that left me and it’s also very intertwined with the music.

How did you happen to become a model?

Uriah: My first show was at São Paulo Fashion Week, and I was already at an agency. I think I was found on Instagram, my image caught the attention of a brand owner, and I started to walk the runway a lot, per season. I paraded every day, during the season for SPFW and Casa de Criadores as well.

It’s curious how you had a professional life in which all these subjects were intertwined…

Uriah: I think about it a lot! It seems that everything we do during life, even if we think it has nothing to do with it, completes what we want to be. But it was all very unintentional.

Body Hope; Yves Saint Laurent shoes; Hector Albertazzi Jewelry (Camila Tuon/)

And you seem to take it all so lightly…

At first, it was very much a long shot. It was doubtful if I was going to get any kind of return – for everyone in the artistic world, everything is very much a “will it work?”. Now I have a more solid foundation, I can have the freedom to think artistically and not think about everything I had to think about before. How will the makeup be, for example. Today, I discuss this with my team and they add their baggage. It’s a different rhythm, so I think it’s lighter.

You became a reference for the LGBTQIA+ community by becoming a successful pop singer. What does this mean for you?

Uriah: I see it as a scale. There are two weights in this. The good thing is that I can show that girls like me exist, that we are not destined and designated to just be on the sidelines, that we know how to be and be in a collective, that we were not born just to be seen at night.

And there is the downside, which is representation for the sake of representation. Sometimes they just put you in and you’re the only one. And just having you… ready. And we are not like that. I think I can’t represent such a plural community, there are women with other skin tones, ethnicities… I wouldn’t say we’re still being represented. People know that we exist, but I think there still have to be many.

How the youth of today look at us, at the girls who are there… Wow, it’s a place to be able to imagine other possibilities, it’s not even being able to look and say “She’s there and she’s reached where I want to go”, it’s having the possibility of starting to dream. When we understand ourselves as a trans woman, we think of a certain destination that is what we are always taken, where we are always pushed, and we will fall on the sidelines. And being here lights up this possibility of dreaming in our heads. That’s not my only option, I can be, be. I think that, before I was a singer, when I saw and felt represented, that’s what I felt.

Top Collection; Short Diesel; Yves Saint Laurent Sandal; Hector Albertazzi Earrings; Iron Arm bandage and rope (Camila Tuon/)

Do you believe that fashion and music are more open and receptive to LGBTQIA+ artists? How do you see it today?

Uriah: It has a very long path to walk. It’s not even about quantity and quality, but it’s about niche. When they categorize me as an “LGBT artist”, they limit me to an audience that is already my audience, and people outside look at it and think “it’s not for me”. It prevents my work from reaching these people. You separate me from the rest, you know? It’s a cutout that’s just a feature. That’s my feeling. We have to walk to normalize our lives, so that my work can be normalized, so that I am not an “LGBT artist”, but a person, who sings.

It limits me a lot. Not a career, day to day, spaces, our presence in places… I want to enter a place and see someone like me working, shopping, and I walk a lot towards this place of naturalization and normalization. We are part of the whole. And it’s not like people think I’m going to be taking anything away from anyone.

How is your relationship with your body today? What do you prioritize today when it comes to body care?

Uriah: Exercise, lots of exercise! I exercise a lot. And belly down, I don’t work out arms! I do it at least 3 times a week, with a personal trainer, and it’s always very mixed.

I think sweating is a very important way to get rid of not only toxins, not only bad things from your body, but also from your head. I had many of my ideas in the middle of exercising, it’s good for the skin, it releases endorphins… And you look hot! It’s just having the discipline to get up and do it, but it’s hard.

Diesel jacket; Body Hope; Yves Saint Laurent shoes; Hector Albertazzi Jewelry (Camila Tuon/)

Getting that hook… You woke up super early today to train before rehearsal. Is bodybuilding an exercise you like? Do you do it out of obligation? How do you deal with this balance between discipline and pleasure?

Uriah: Sometimes I don’t want to go, but I go because I’m paying the professional. It’s not in the place of pleasure, it’s “I need to go”. If I can go today, maybe tomorrow I won’t be able to, I have to enjoy it… But it’s not only looking “beautiful”, but feeling good, understanding that my body is where I’m projecting it to be. And it’s also really nice when everyone looks at you and no one can call you ugly!

Have you ever practiced any kind of fight, boxing, something like that?

Uriah: I once did krav maga because I got mugged. I did a few months, but it’s not for me, I was too scared of getting hurt in a serious way. But I tried! It’s more bodybuilding, for me, and I rehearse a lot, when there’s a show I rehearse twice.

By the way, today you did super different poses, in high heels – and you even said that if you could, you would always wear high heels. How can you do that?

Uriah: There is a dancer, choreographer, whose name is Jesse Miller, and she specializes in dancing on top of heels. When I decided I wanted to do a show in heels, she taught me everything, how to step, the basics… With that help, nowadays I feel pain not wearing heels!

Top Collection; Short Diesel; Yves Saint Laurent Sandal; Hector earrings…