Anitta Says Her 'Priorities Shifted' in Music After She Got Sick: 'I Don't Care What the F--- Is Going to Happen'

After Anitta got sick in 2023, she decided she would start living her life by her own accord.

In a cover story interview with Variety published Wednesday, May 1, the Brazilian star opened up getting ill and taking a break from music to focus on her health — and the realizations that came with it.

“Now I appreciate death so much,” Anitta, 31, told the outlet.

“I thought I was going to die. And if I did, I wanted to be sure I left behind a body of work that I felt truly represented me and the sounds I love," she continued. "I’d already had the hits; I already did it by the numbers. Death, and the fact that we don’t know what tomorrow holds, make me feel the most alive. Now I want to try something that makes me feel like an artist again.”

After the release of Versions of Me, the singer-songwriter was hit with a mystery illness that gave her full-body pain and fevers that left her unable to walk. She was tested for cancer and autoimmune diseases, but an exact diagnosis remains a mystery.

After she took some time off for herself, Anitta realized she no longer wanted to make music for the sake of numbers and pleasing others.

“I didn’t feel happy,” she said. “I didn’t have the energy anymore. I was looking at the sales numbers too much, reading what the internet and critics had to say."

She continued, "After having thought so much about what life could look like if I quit, or if I died … my priorities shifted."

Funk Generation, her latest album that dropped in April, is the product of those feelings. And though she's proud of her older music — this one hits different.

“For a long time, the numbers have decided whether I won or failed, and that will push you to do something unoriginal,” she said. “I want to be very clear: That doesn’t mean I don’t love my old songs."

"With 'Versions of Me,' I was trying a little bit of everything to try to solidify myself in the mainstream, but I don’t care what the f--- is gonna happen with this next album," she added. "I love the adrenaline of not knowing whether people are going to like it."

Before Funk Generation, Anitta released a three-song bundle called Funk Generation: a Favela Love Story, which she performed at the 2023 VMAs. At the time, she took home the Moon Person for best Latin video for "Funk Rave."

At the 2023 Grammy Awards, she was nominated for best new artist.

"I'm so happy. I've said it a lot because it means a lot," Anitta told PEOPLE at the time. "It's been half a century. Fifty years that Brazil is not here in a main category. So, for me, we're making history. My whole country is watching in Brazil, waiting for this. I'm really happy. For me, the victory is to be here tonight, to be honest."

"I hope with my presence here I can open room for more artists from Brazil to come here, so we don't have to wait for 50 years," she added. "I'm really happy and it's a really long journey."