Thiaguinho

One of the most popular Brazilian pagode singers to emerge in the early 2000s, Thiaguinho (Thiago André Barbosa) was born in the São Paulo state in 1983, but raised in the southern region of Mato Grosso. While he had been playing in samba-pop bands since his teens, Thiaguinho's first stab at national recognition was as a contestant of a TV Globo music reality show, in 2002. The following year he was invited to join Exaltasamba, an iconic pagode group originally formed in the 1980s. Thiaguinho would remain with the band for roughly a decade, releasing numerous albums and DVDs. His tenure with Exaltasamba turned him into a genre star, which automatically granted him a massive audience once he decided to go solo in 2012 with the release of Ousadia & Alegria (Ao Vivo). By 2026 he had released about 20 solo albums and DVDs, most of those recorded live -- a common practice in pagode.