Sea-facing devotion, sung in a circle. A ciranda is a roda dance-song from the coast of north-eastern Brazil, and on “Ciranda Rainha” São Paulo singer Rodrigo Ciampi keeps that call-and-response frame while recording with Afro-Cuban percussion from Batanga & Cia. The session brings tumbadoras together with batá drum voices including okónkolo, itótele and iyá, plus tambora, quinto, cata and piano under Ciampi’s lead vocal and chorus.

Ciampi is a singer and songwriter from São Paulo, Brazil, and their recorded catalogue runs from the 2018 album Girada, followed by Jurema Mestra, which brings in song material linked to Catimbó and Jurema Sagrada traditions from north-eastern Brazil. They have also been a finalist at Imagine Brazil, and their early live circuit included LGBTQIA+ cultural spaces in São Paulo, including Museu da Diversidade Sexual. This is not their first meeting with Batanga & Cia either: the earlier single “Rosa Vermelha” already paired Ciampi’s vocal with the group’s percussion line.

The single is out 6 February via YB Music and is dedicated to Iemanjá, the Yoruba orisha of the sea honoured in Afro-Brazilian religious practice. Written by Filipe Edmo and Adriano Salhab, the lyric addresses Iemanjá directly, naming her as “rainha mãe do mar” (queen mother of the sea) and placing the roda on sand and seawater.

Ciampi describes the session as a greeting made with ‘músicos de além do atlântico’ (musicians from beyond the Atlantic), and the credits put that plainly: Batanga & Cia’s guests are Cuban players based in São Paulo, including Hanser Ferrer Alvarez (piano, voice, tumbadora), Pedro Damian Bandera Izquierdo (tumbadoras, batá voices including okónkolo, itótele and iyá, plus tambora), and Alexis Damian Rodríguez de Armas (quinto, vocals).