Биография

Buraka Som Sistema co-founder and Enchufada label-head Branko presents OBG, his third album. The artist’s most personal and reflective work to date, it’s a letter of love and thanks to the community around him, to Portugal’s breathtaking landscapes, and to the syncopated, window-rattling rhythms that emanate from the clubs and car stereos of Portuguese cities. As a musician, DJ, label curator and promoter, few have been as pivotal as Branko (aka João Barbosa) in bringing the sound of underground Portuguese electronic music to a global audience. Since his formative years growing up in the city of Amadora on the fringes of Lisbon, Barbosa dedicated his career to elevating the unique club music hybrids–mutations of kuduro, kizomba, zouk, baile funk and more–that were spreading in the communities around him. Branko initially achieved success as part of the collective Buraka Som Sistema, before beginning a career as a solo artist and releasing two LP’s, Atlas (2015) and Nossos (2019). But Barbosa’s creative output is just one side of his work. As a curator Branko launched the Lisbon festival Enchufada Na Zona in 2019 and in 2022 curated a stage at the first Sonar Lisboa. Through his label, Enchufada, he works tirelessly to raise the profile of up and comers from Lisbon and the global Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) diaspora.