Paulo Araujo

Paulo Monaghan-Araujo, known mostly as Paulo Araujo (born July 22, 1989) is a Brazilian recording artist, singer, producer and fashion icon. Renowned for being a rare male vocal powerhouse and his larger than life yet laidback public persona, Araujo has enjoyed success both as an urban staple and crossover artist, placing 14 singles (plus one as a featured artist) at the top of the Uraps Singles Chart and over 30 Top 5 hit entries, a record for male artists.

A blossoming teen artist at first, Araujo's cookie-cutter image soon crumbled to involve issues with substance abuse (including a drug overdose), mental illness (with a suicide attempt preceding a public diagnosis of mild schizophrenia) and an on-off relationship with Alex Washington, but later transcended to a musical career of critical acclaim and popular success, with third album Jack of Clubs, released in 2009, holding the record for biggest sales for a male album prior to being ousted by husband Raphael, including a successful transition to fashion with the ADONIS fast fashion brand in partnership with Roberto Cavalli.

Deemed a LGTBQ+ champion and an icon for Latin-American culture due to his international status, as of 2019, Araujo has sold approximately 250 million copies and is estimated by RIAA to be the male singer with most sales certifications and achievments of the 2010s decade. A career in entertainment spawning several award nominations, over 27 Urapopstar Awards including the most Best Collaboration wins in history and Best Album honors for seventh studio album Profanities.

After announcing a planned retirement with eighth album Sabbath in 2016, Araujo shifted his focus to raising his newfound family and his career as a TV producer and actor, including Netflix hit show Papi Knows Best. In early 2021, Araujo released his first single in 5 years, followed by a return to the top of charts worldwide in a collaborative project with H1J4CK. His ninth studio album The Gift is expected to drop this Summer.

1989-2005: Childhood and discovery
Paulo Tadeu Araújo was born to Cláudia (née Silva) and Almir Araujo on July 22 1989, the couple's fourth child. Raised on the west side suburbs of São Paulo, Brazil, the couple struggled financially to maintain the family's middle-class lifestyle, with the singer recounting a "lack of luxuries" most of his school friends and neighbors enjoyed, as their parents focused on "spending money in our education and culture" - with the young teen being fluent in the English language as young as 14. Initially wanting to become an actor, the star would take piano lessons along with his older brother, who according to the singer was "the real talent with music. I'd just sit around the piano and look bored". However, after being encouraged by his father, the star joined a local choir and became invested in singing.

In spite of his fear of the spotlight, his family once again encouraged him to step out out his comfort zone and Araujo landed a place in the Top 10 for the Brazilian edition of singing competition Fame Academy, finishing in 7th place: "the judges felt I lacked 'authenticity' - it broke my heart back then but they were absolutely right, I still had a lot to do in terms of finding my identity as a performer."

However, the teen star's potential as a vocalist and his comfort in singing in the English language during the show drew attention outside of Brazil, with musical industry manager Peter Rudd seeing in Araujo the chance for the rise of a Latino superstars, following the foosteps of Esmeralda Dimuzio.

2005-08: Early musical success, coming out and personal tribulations
After facing resistance from his mother Rudd managed to fly Araujo to London, with a promise of landing a record deal until the end of 2005 or bringing the minor back home. Araujo recounts bearing fake IDs in order to perform in the local club scene for some income and to raise his profile. After a failed audition to Filthy/Gorgeous Records, Araujo impressed disco diva and F/G signee Allyseenah, who was on the verge of taking a career leap - after she founded her own Plat'num Records, Araujo became the first act signed in October 2005. Moving forward fast, Plat'num decided to polish Araujo's demo track and release it as a buzz single - "Misery Loves Company" was set for a late January 2006 release on the charts but it surprisingly attained steady rotation on British radio stations, with its accompanying Carnaval-themed music video being an MTV staple. The result was a surprising chart breakthrough, leading the singer to debut in the Top 3 of the Uraps Singles Chart.

After the sudden initial success, Plat'num was eager to keep momentum going and rushed Araujo to finish his debut album. On March 2005, Never As Good As The First Time arrived, hot on the heels of monster hit "Hooded Jacket" which remarkably spent 3 weeks in a row on the Top 3 of the charts, to later become one of the year's top selling releases and a nomination for Record of the Year 2006, also propelling its parent album, a 19-track set with a healthy mix of Latin Pop and R&B, soul and crunk music, to sales of half a million copies in the UK alone.

The album's promotion took a more worldwide turn as friend Tiara Coles called Paulo to release "Superstar", which became Coles' biggest UK hit at the time while solidifying Araujo's presence in North America. However, Araujo's successful debut era ended abruptly after his Tango Challenge entry "Take A Trip (Granny)" turned into a major disappointment, missing the Top 20 and leading a re-release of the album to miss the Top 30 altogether. In spite of its short span, the project sold approximately 4.5 million copies worldwide and saw Araujo become the youngest person to win an Urapopstar Award in its 12th ceremony, taking home the Best R&B Artist trophy and being nominated for Best Male and Best New Artist as well.

After such success, Araujo enjoyed a reputation as an 'angelic' teen heartthrob, but his steady presence on tabloids quickly took a 180º turn after being caught cheating on fellow teenstar and girlfriend Robin and doing illegal drugs as a minor. Soon after, Araujo came out as bisexual and media fodder became increasingly negative, aggravated by a scandalous relationship with Alex Washington - with the couple's age gap at the time (with Araujo being a minor still), party antics and penchant for being open about their struggles with fidelity and substance abuse making them huge fixtures on entertainment news, which would continue over the years.

As his career and personal life continued on a nose dive trend, with his toxic relationship and alleged promiscuity taking centerfold, Araujo isolated himself from public appearances for close to one year, including a 3-month stint in rehab demanded by mother Claudia. Araujo would later detail the period as "the first time I've been in the dark" and struggling with "mutual distrust" of industry acquaintances. A few comeback attempts were frustrated after Plat'num records folded, but Araujo received a second chance as the first male signee of Wired Records. After a critically-acclaimed duet with Luke Ramada received a lukewarm response from the record buying public in March 2007, label head and singer-songwriter Arwyn Knight and Washington intervened to get the young talent clean and inside the recording studio.

Instead of fighting against public scrutiny, Araujo and Wired Records banked on his tainted image with the simultaneous release of sophomore Villain and its title track. Moving further away from his debut, the album features a more cohesive soul, influenced by the Motown era and soul music. A promotional campaign crossing all boundaries of sensationalism ensued, with Araujo's self-destructive spiraling further publicly, including feuds with celebrity peers and rape and murder accusations - although never formally charged, Araujo was reported to have been "on the run from law enforcement" right on the verge of his 18th birthday. Both projects logged in at #1 in the UK by August 2007. Chart success continued as "Baritone" broke the record for biggest weekly radio executions of all-time and a pair of two other modest hits. The project was nominated for Best Album award at the 15th Urapopstar Awards, along with another nomination for Best R&B Artist for Araujo, and was certified Diamond in the UK for sales of over a million copies at the end of its run.

After a successful sophomore album era, Araujo was seemingly settling down with veteran Pop vixen Emma Brown, before abruptly eloping with fashionista popstar BRAXTON in 2008. After moving back to Brazil, the coupled surprised the world when son Legolas Araujo was born on December 29 2008.

2009-10: Stardom and suicide attempt
While fatherhood seemed to be going well, Araujo and BRAXTON's relationship eroded away from the gaze of British press in Brazil, while former collaborator Ben Johnston and ex-turned-foe Alex Washington accused Araujo of songwriting theft and abusive behavior, respectively. The controversies inspired the prompt release of Jack of Clubs, recorded in less than a month in London, with aid from music's top producers at the time, crafting a seamless urban pop sound that the star described as "nocturnal and playful".

Lead single Blaze addressed the complicated 'Paulex' drama head on both lyrically and visually and was met with huge praise by critics and audiences alike, in a chart battle with Washington where Paulo came out winner. With second single Sort It Out (Part 3) released as part of the Tango Challenge merely 2 weeks later, Araujo not only seemingly patched things with Alex but in the way became only the second artist that decade to have 2 singles charting inside the Top 10 of the Singles Chart. Fan-favorite Fireflies in the Dark was received moderately on the charts, but Trainwreck and its state-of-art video, nominated for several awards throughout the year, propelled Araujo to his best first-week sales in the singles front, a personal best beat mere months later when Vocoder became his second Uraps Singles Chart chart-topper and his top-selling at that point.

The steady success of the album led Wired to prepare the Royal Straight Flush repackage, which expanded its chart dominance with two other #1 singles - with Blunt unapologetically being a celebration of bisexuality, poking fun at and embracing his "promiscuous" image crafted by the papparazzi, while Falso Amor earned the distinction of being the first song in a foreign language (Portuguese) to top the Uraps Singles Chart.

Upon release, Jack of Clubs enjoyed the best opening sales for a male artist in the UK since 2006 and the best for a male artist worldwide in 2009. At the end of its run, the album had tied the record for longest stay in the Uraps Albums Chart and went on to be the biggest selling album (at that time) by a male artist, third overall. Regarding awards, the video for Trainwreck brought several in music video ceremonies, such as the VMAs, while Araujo became the most recognized R&B artist in the Urapopstar Awards with four awards after three consecutive wins, startihg with the 16th ceremony. In addition, he won Best Male at the 18th. This era has also seen the singer being crowned top rated artist at the 14th URAPS Rate.

In spite of a sparkling professional career, Araujo's personal ghosts were not fully at bay - the continuous strenuous relationship with Alex Washington and relapses into substance abuse finally became too much to handle when added by a public tabloid feud with former friend Romo which sent Paulo into a nervous breakdown in January 2010. Apparently recovered, the singer returned to promotional activities until he was found unresponsive on his London flat in April of the same year, later confirmed by police investigations to be a suicide attempt.

Personal Life
It is very debatable whether the brazilian singer is more known for his baritone pipes or his widely-publicized life. Starting off as a cute nerdy boy at the tender age of 16, the singer composed the perfect teenybopper couple with another underage R&B singer, Robin. In true Lifetime movie/soap opera style, soon after starting very succesfully his music career, the teen singer went on a downfall including drugs-induced breakdowns and the end of his relationship in exchange of a promiscuous lifestyle, briefly dating almost every women (and later men) involved with the music industry. Robin followed soon after with her own fall from grace but despite that, both singers often rekindle every now and then.

Another big turnout for Araujo was his very public closet come-out through a long on-and-off relationship with Alex Washington. Be it together or apart, both play a large influence on each other's personal life and career. Articles regarding their relationship can be found everywhere in the British press for their drama-fueled break-ups and make-ups. Inbetween the release of his second and third albums, Araujo started a serious and much more grounded relationship with BRAXTON, but that soon faded once Washington got back in the picture for one last time. Out of the failed relationship with Washington, Araujo got press and lyrics enough to release 10 albums with and hit singles; with BRAXTON, Araujo had the chance to become a parent as they've adopted one son together, Legolas Araujo.

Apart from his promiscuous behavior and relationships to other stars, Araujo is also known for being a very hated personality amongst his celebrity peers: despite presenting a tongue-in-cheek borderline crazy persona to the public, he's fallen out with almost every celebrity friend under the sun. In recent times, former boss Arwyn Knight and studio partners Luke Ramada and Ben Johnston all had bad things to say about Araujo. The only close friends of Araujo in the music business are Tiara Coles and possibly Carl Reeves.

It is also notable that the singer has nearly been charged with rape and murder during the release of his sophomore album. It is unclear how the charges were dropped and how the singer was found not guilty as substantial proof of his involvement leaked to the media in the form of camera recordings, but the fact is he remains a free citizen.

The cherry on top is his recently and infamous already mushroom tea addiction.

Other endeavours
After rumours that he was in talks with spanish director Pedro Almodovar about a joint movie project, Paulo Araujo finally landed his first acting gig, starring alongside Esmeralda Dimuzio in the suspense movie War Within Our Hearts. The movie was a mild box office success in the United States, charting at #2 behind "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs".

The singer seems to be involved with reality TV: it was his stepping stone in Brazil and after that he's joined the 2009 edition of Celebrity Big Brother. Despite failing to win, he starred a very explicit sex scene with then-enemy-now-lover-again Alex Washington. He is currently a judge on the 10th installment of Uraps Idol.

He also serves as occasional vocal coach for a few musicians, the most prominent of them being Emily Henning.

Also, 2009 saw Araujo branching into modelling after being signed by the all-star Ramone Agency, owned by no other than Sophie Ramone. Rarely doing runway work, Araujo specializes on being a photo model, being sought out by many for his newfound beefcake-sexy looks

Araujo is also the current reigning Duke of the country Macedonia, which is part of the Homossexual Empire founded by Neyssa and Alesha. It is unknown the status of other countries in the Empire but Araujo still rules Macedonia to this date.

Discography
''Main article: Paulo Araujo discography

Awards
Despite being one of the youngest amongst the greatest ranks of the industry, Araujo has been receiving critical acclaim from the start of his career, being only 16 when he won his first Urapopstar Award - before he could even celebrate one year since the release of his debut single. He's been a fixture name at the awards ever since the release of his sophomore album, being nominated for a total of thirteen Urapopstar Awards amongst other ceremonies, winning four times the prize for Best Urban/R&B Artist, the only artist to be awarded so many times in that particular category.

The star's appearances on screen as a talent judge and actor have also grabbed attention, with multiple nominations for People's Choice and MTV Movie Awards in the bag. On the acting field, his most notable award mention has been a nomination for the prestigious theatre Laurence Olivier Award statue.

In 2014, he took home a Golden Globe for Original Song and an Oscar nomination, both for the theme to his Blood Wedding movie, Stallion/Thirst.

See a list of Araujo's most important nominations and wins below: