Drawn to both glossy radio hits and off-kilter sounds, Adriana Caldas de Barros makes leftfield electronic pop as Nana Lourdes that feels both eccentric and familiar. As an only child living in the middle of nowhere, Portugal, the 27-year-old artist assuaged a lifetime of boredom by teaching herself how to write, produce, and mix while shuffling between her parents’ living room and late great-grandma’s bedroom. In 2020, she began releasing her first singles “R.D.L.” and “Kenny,” which immediately drew online attention for their effortlessly catchy melodies, psychedelic synths, hyperpop-like Auto-Tune, and sparkly 2000s pop-inspired production. Touching on themes of belonging, isolation, and heartbreak, Nana’s whimsical lyrics immerse listeners into imagined scenarios that pull from her experience as a film school grad.

Nana presents her most fully realized narrative yet on her debut album, Wyoming, a concept record about a toxic romance that also serves as an analogy for the addictive nature of celebrity culture. It was fully written, produced, and mixed by Nana, apart from the co-written/produced “Cowgirl Make Me Cry (Interlude).”

Folding in elements of country and folk, yacht rock, disco house, and electro-funk, the album follows a couple who stokes their romance on a whirlwind road trip from California to Wyoming. The relationship eventually spirals into an on-again, off-again breakup, which Nana sees as an apt metaphor for relationship to her pop culture obsessions. “Guilty pleasures can feel familiar and comfortable, whether it brings you pleasure or pain,” she explains.

She had never visited the U.S. before writing the album and got the first spark of inspiration for Wyoming while rewatching a 2019 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians called “Cattle Drive Me Crazy,” in which the family visits a Wyoming ranch. Immediately, she became fixated on how the Kardashians’ artificiality stood out against the rural backdrop. ”It was the perfect escape,” she says, until she began questioning her willingness to fall into this universe.

To universalize her ambivalence toward celebrity culture, Nana disguises her lyrics on Wyoming to come across as love songs where the main character becomes infatuated with an uber-wealthy horse girl. On “Sausalito,” Nana conveys fanatical desire when she sings, “When I’m at work / Your image stays stuck / Insinuates itself into my brain.” But even in this honeymoon phase, there’s disillusionment. “Always said eat the rich… / I’m synonym of hypocrite,” Nana sings on “Horse Girl,” hinting at her own regret in buying into the allure of stardom. The project’s eclectic palette was influenced by the Carpenters, Kacey Musgraves, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Hornsby, and ‘90s California hip-hop.

Nana’s fascination with American pop culture stems back to growing up in a small town of ~800 people, where “there’s nothing to do, so you find other peoples’ lives more interesting,” she says. As a child, her mom always kept American tabloid magazines around the house, and she annoyed her parents by playing Britney Spears’ 2003 album In the Zone incessantly in the car. She picked up guitar after becoming a Jonas Brothers fan, but as a kid living in Portugal, she never saw a path toward having a career in music. Later, while attending film school, a film audio class finally gave her the push of confidence to pursue songwriting and production.

Though she’s inspired by Britney, Currents by Tame Impala, Enya, and that one LeAnn Rimes song, Nana wants to push the boundaries of pop. “I’ve always felt like I was in the middle of two worlds: commercial pop and alternative music,” she says. “I want to be a bridge between those worlds. I want to be known as a curator, but make songs that the masses can enjoy.”