Anitta shared an emotional tribute to her idol Mariah Carey, after the star followed her on Instagram.
Brazilian singer, songwriter and actress Anitta, 26, revealed she has been a huge fan of the ‘Hero’ singer since she was young as her two aunts were "obsessed" with Mariah and she credits the star as her inspiration for deciding to become a musician.
Anitta wrote on Instagram: "That’s my family waking me up today telling me @mariahcarey followed me. For the ones who don’t know, my 2 aunts and my mom were obsessed about her. So when I was born I was the best student ever for them and became an even better fan. That’s why I started to say I wanted to be a singer so early in life. My uncle use to present us every Christmas with a new MC cd and we always use to celebrate going craaaaaazy. (Cuz in that time we didn’t have money to buy ourselves). So this one and only cd of hers of the year used to spend one week in each of us’ houses. And I use to go to their houses with the cd to keep listening lol. (When I got money I bought 2 of each cd for us so we could listen as much as we wanted.)
"When she came to Brazil, we didn’t have money to go see. I remember me listening to her concert on the radio crying cuz I wasn’t there. My birthday is 2 days after hers and sometimes we use to celebrate her birthday with mine lol. When I could finally have enough money to travel all the family to see her show, everytime I tried some sh*t happened and we couldn’t make it (sorry for some empty front seats u must have seeing sometimes. It was ours and we were as pissed as u probably were seeing that was empty.) I don’t give a f**k that it’s just a Instagram follow stuff. I’m not trying a feat, not trying a meet, I’m not trying an answer here… actually I’m not trying sh*t. I’m just sharing how crazy is life. I grew up with her in my heart every day as my inspiration from very very far away and now she knows who the f**k I am. That’s crazy as f**k (sic)."
After Mariah, 49, saw the emotional message, she penned a sweet note back to the singer and her family.
Mariah wrote: "Anitta, I don’t even know what to say! Thank you for your appreciation of my music. I’m so proud of you for making your dreams come true!!! Hope to meet you soon, maybe even in Brazil- one of my favorite places in the world! Love to you and your family!! (sic)."