Meet The Beautiful Female African Musician Who Was Once a Man

The lady in red, her name is Titica. She is bold, she is bright, she is beautiful and she is taking Angola by storm. Some days ago, UNAIDS made Angola’s transsexual singer Titica one of its goodwill ambassadors. Born in Luanda as Teca Miguel Garcia, singer and dancer Titica adopted her female persona four years ago following a breast enhancement operation in Brazil. Now, at twenty-six, Titica is the new face of Angola’s unique urban rap-techno fusion music style known as “kuduro”. Speaking to the BBC last year, during a make-up session before filming the video for her current hit Olha o Boneco, which features popular Angolan kizomba singer Ary, Titica said she was overcome with her success. “Thanks to God, I am very happy, it has taken a while to get here and involved a lot of sacrifice but thanks to God, everything is going well for me. I’ve been stoned, I’ve been beaten, and there is a lot of prejudice against me, a lot of people show that. There is a lot of taboo,”. Despite that taboo, Titica appears to have no shortage of fans and most seem more interested in her music than in her sexuality.