It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

The blue-backed tanager was formally described in 1819 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the binomial name Pyranga cyanicterus.

[3] This species is now the only member of the genus Cyanicterus that was introduced by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850.

[6] The blue-backed tanager is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.