Anitta Opens Up About Terrifying Cancer Scare: ‘Nobody Could Figure Out What I Had’

Anitta is shedding light on a scary experience she had at the end of 2022.

The Brazilian superstar revealed to InStyle this week that she had been visiting the hospital for “months” with a cancer scare, with fear being fueled by doctors struggling to figure out what was wrong. “I had problems in my lungs, I had a cancer [scare]. I spent months in the hospital. Nobody could figure out what I had,” she explained, noting that she took multiple tests with no result.

Eventually, she sought spiritual treatment from a shaman recommended to her, and the healing she received there worked. “I came back completely changed,” she explained, adding that when the doctors ran more tests, she was healed.

Her new song “Used to Be” was born as a result of the emotional experience, as she leans into her “bitch” persona who “destroys hearts” along the way. “I used to be a hoe, but now I ain’t no more / Been swimmin’ through the water, now I’m back to shore / I look at who I did and I’m like, ‘Oh, my lord,’” she sings in the opening lines of the track.

Anitta performed the track at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday (Sept. 12), along with “Funk Rave,” both of which are featured on her latest release, Funk Generation: A Favela Love Story. “Being an international artist is not only about being famous wherever you go, because the world is so big,” Anitta told Billboard last year. “It’s about being able to impact culturally different areas at the same time.”