1993–2016: Early life Born in
São Luís, Phabullo is a
fraternal twin and has an older sister. He spent part of his childhood and adolescence living in the cities of
Santa Inês and
Caxias, both in the interior of
Maranhão, due to financial difficulties. He never knew his father, who abandoned his mother, a nurse, when she was pregnant with him. During his childhood, Phabullo experienced bullying due to his delicate gestures and feminine voice. At one point, he was physically assaulted with a plate of hot soup thrown over his face. He attended ballet classes during this period. At the age of 13, Phabullo joined the choir at her
Catholic church and began doing covers at family parties and school performances. Soon after, he began songwriting. Later, he decided to become a professional, moving to
Indaiatuba with his sister, where he worked in several places, such as snack bars and beauty salons. Soon after, he moved to
Uberlândia with his mother, who had recently married. He came out to his mother at the age of 15, who had suspected that he was gay, and was something that his sister already knew. He then began to go out for the night in Maranhão, to make friends, and to participate as one of a selection of singers in a house of shows. He started performing his own songs and impersonating celebrities for a small fee, but it was not a professional job. He was now dressing feminine, but did not identify himself as a drag queen; the first time that he did drag was at age 17 in Uberlândia, to publicize a party of his friend by delivering pamphlets at the door of a nightclub. With time, he started performing in LGBT parades in several cities of Maranhão and became known by the state's
LGBT community. At age 18, in
Minas Gerais, Phabullo started participating in and winning some beauty contests in full drag, before beginning his professional career as a singer while adopting the stage name of "Pabllo Knowles", an homage to singer
Beyoncé. Still in Minas Gerais, Phabullo took a
university entrance exam by the
Federal University of Uberlândia, where he was admitted to the full design course in 2013, but after some periods he dropped out of college due to his schedule of shows, which increased greatly due to the success of his music videos on the internet and his participation in the band of primetime television program
Amor & Sexo.When he attracted attention from entrepreneurs in the entertainment field, Phabullo began his musical career professionally, performing in bars and concert halls in Uberlândia and cities of the region. In this period, Phabullo adopted the stage name of
Pabllo Vittar. Vittar appeared on TV for the first time in 2014, on a Brazilian talent singing show, performing "
I Have Nothing" by
Whitney Houston. He became famous in the media in 2015 with the success of his music video "Open Bar", a Portuguese-language version of
Major Lazer's song "
Lean On" with original lyrics, produced by
Bonde do Rolê and
Omulu. In less than four months, the video reached one million views on YouTube. He also released an extended play with the same name, using pop hits' instrumentals with new arrangements and lyrics. Vittar has been featured in songs by international artists such as Major Lazer's "
Sua Cara" (with fellow Brazilian singer
Anitta). The music video was released on 30 July 2017, and reached 10th place on the list of most-viewed online videos in the first 24 hours, with 25 million views. The singer also appears on "
I Got It", from
Charli XCX's fourth mixtape
Pop 2. Vittar collaborated again with XCX on "
Flash Pose", released on 25 July 2019; the single was later included on Vittar's album
111. He also got to perform "Flash Pose" at the
2019 MTV Europe Music Awards. In 2024, Vittar was featured on the single "
Alibi" alongside Iranian-Dutch artist
Sevdaliza and French singer-songwriter
Yseult. The song debuted at number 95 on the
Billboard Hot 100, marking Vittar's first entry on the chart and the second entry of a drag queen on the chart in history. == Artistry ==