Netinho

Ernesto de Souza Andrade Júnior was born on July 12, 1966, in Santo Antônio de Jesus, Bahia. When he was nine his father died in a car accident, and a year later the family moved to Salvador. His mother gave him his first guitar when he was 14 and he learned to play on his own. He enrolled in civil engineering at the Catholic University of Salvador and, alongside his studies, began playing bossa nova and Brazilian popular music in schools, theatres and small bars.

After discovering Salvador's Carnival as a reveller with the Bloco Beijo, Netinho auditioned to succeed Luiz Caldas as the bloco's singer. He made his debut on the official Carnival circuit with Banda Beijo in 1988, the year "Beijo na Boca" became a national hit. In 1990 he took the band's trio elétrico to the World Cup in Italy.

Going solo in the early 1990s, he released Um Beijo pra Você (1993), which went platinum in Brazil, followed by Nada Vai Nos Separar (1994) and the live album Netinho ao Vivo! (1996), home of "Milla", his signature song. Me Leva (1997) gave him "Pra Te Ter Aqui", the theme of the Globo soap opera Corpo Dourado. In 1998 he relaunched Banda Beijo with Gilmelândia, and he toured Portugal, Europe and the United States, staging a Carnival for 80,000 people in Lisbon in 2000 to mark 500 years of Brazil.

After a break in the early 2000s he returned with the album Outra Versão (2005) and his first DVD, recorded in 2006 at the Concha Acústica of the Teatro Castro Alves with guests including Ivete Sangalo and Ilê Aiyê. Minha Praia (2008) was nominated for a Latin Grammy, and in 2009 he marked 20 years of his career with the DVD Netinho e a Caixa Mágica, recorded in Aracaju.

From 1997 to 2003 Netinho was married to the journalist Mariana Trindade, and the couple had a daughter, Bruna, born in 2000. In 2008 he said publicly that he was bisexual. He became a vegan in 2017 and in later years described himself as a Christian and a conservative. A supporter of Jair Bolsonaro, he stood for federal deputy for Bahia for the Liberal Party in 2022, receiving more than 31,000 votes but not winning a seat. His political statements and his use of "Milla" at a pro-Bolsonaro rally led to public disputes, including a legal clash with the song's composer, Manno Góes.

His health was a recurring struggle. In 2013 he suffered three strokes and underwent brain surgery, spending months in hospital and temporarily losing his voice, movement and memory. He later spoke about the deep depression that followed and returned to music gradually.

Netinho was diagnosed with an aggressive type B non-Hodgkin lymphoma in March 2025 after being admitted to Hospital Aliança Star in Salvador with severe pain. He underwent chemotherapy, shared his treatment with fans and later returned to performing, but in 2026 he announced that the disease had returned. He was readmitted to hospital and died there on the morning of Tuesday, October 13, 2026, aged 60, after the lymphoma progressed to kidney failure and multiple organ dysfunction. His team said he left peacefully. At his wish, his wake and cremation were held privately for family and close friends.

Netinho is remembered as one of the great voices of axé music's golden age, the singer who carried Banda Beijo from Salvador's Carnival circuit to national television and took the trio elétrico abroad. "Milla" remains one of the best known songs of the genre, returning to Globo's soap opera Segundo Sol in 2018 and still sung at Carnival more than a quarter of a century after its release.