|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rio Carnaval 2008
| Special Rio de Janeiro Carnaval 2008 Report | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||
|
Carnaval Sunday, February 22 Start of parades: 9:00 p.m. School
Carnaval
Monday, February 23
|
|
There were also improved results regarding safety in Rio. Visitors generally appeared to feel safer during this year's events with ratings for the city's security services rising to 7.7 (out of 10) from 7.2 in 2008. Carlos Nuzman, President of Rio 2016 said, "we welcome the results of Riotur's (the city's official tourism agency) 2009 survey as a clear sign of our city's ability to host large-scale events safely and draw significant amounts of international visitors to experience the greatest Carnival in the world." There is an intense focus within Rio de Janeiro political community to cement its place as the first City of South America by being the first to host the Olympic games. The year 2009 began with a dedication of the 36 meter tall Rio 2016 themed Ferris wheel located at Copacabana Fort to promote Rio’s candidacy for the Games. Rio’s new mayor, Eduardo Paes, also took advantage of the first day of his term to sign over a package of guarantees to support the staging of the Olympic Games, should the city be selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 2 October 2009.
The press enjoyed an opportunity to focus on a rivalry with her replacement in the Salgueiro Samba School, Viviane Araújo. The clash of the two Muses first heated up in 2007, when Gracyanne began performing with Belo, who is afterall the former husband of Viviane .
"When they (Viviane and Belo) finished, everything was already solved. Each had other relationships. What they have had and are only to resolve the litigation. Now we are all very happy," said to an EGO reporter. According to Gracyanne, the famous samba Queen who took her place as Salguiero Queen was always "cool" when she called her cell phone to inquire about he ex. Viviane and Belo were married for eight years. In 2006, the singer was arrested for the first time, accused of association to drug trafficking. Viviane would often visit him in jail. She was even going to make the sex education for entitlement to intimate visits. In 2007, however, the couple separated amidst rumors of treason - Belo was seeing dancer
Gracyanne Barbosa. After the separation, Belo and Viviane met only in court, when they decided the division of property - which included the sale of the couple's mansion in Barra da Tijuca. Viviane was voted as the best Carnival queen of the drums 2008, The ex-wife of singer Belo had beautiful debut as the red-and-white queen of the critically acclaimed and crowd favorite samba school Tijuca. Graceyanne was very excited to have been given her first choice of drum baterias to lead in the 2008 Carnaval. "I prefer Manguera because it has an unparalleled energy, "said the dancer.
According to the survey, reported at globo.com/carnaval2008
there was a technical tie between Viviane Araújo (6.6%) of the
Salgueiro, and Juliana Paes (6.4%), successor to Luma de
Oliveira as Queen of Viradouro. (Ms. Paes has retired from the
2009 Carnaval following a Sept-2008 marriage)
Still there is the prize that Gracyanne most desired. In June of 2008 she had a "I love you Belo." tattoo engraved on her arm by Daniel Larusso in Studio Wanda Frank. The most recent imprisonment of Belo for part of 2008 was related to prosecutors fighting probation from the first, an 8-year sentence for drug dealing.. After postponing the union for some time, Belo decided to marry at once with Gracyanne Barbosa after he left the prison in 2008 in a civil ceremony with a formal religious ceremony to be announced later.
2009 Carnaval Saturday at the Sambadrome 
Porto da Pedra
had two personalities receive awards in the
The Niterói
samba school Acadêmicos do Cubango was
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Luma & Luiza | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| The return of the Imperial Eternal Muses | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| As a model, actress and former Playboy
cover girl, Luma de Oliveira certainly fitted the mold. It was
her age, 44, that did not. And neither did that of Luiza Brunet,
46, who will be queen for Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba troupe.
“It’s interesting that women over 40 are serving as examples of beauty,” said Joyce Pascowitz, Brazil’s elder stateswomen of fashion. The boss of the fashion website, Glamurama, and Pascowitz magazine added: “This puts a value on Brazilian women over the age considered the maximum. It shows that, yes, there is life after 40. And not just intelligent life.” "It's a huge change," Luiza Brunet, 46, told The Associated Press as she prepared for her showcase role in the Imperatiz samba school's parade. "It shows that women who are more mature are gaining space in a country with so much machismo, where we give more value to youth and beauty." Psychologist Enaile Ortiz - herself 48 - agreed: "Brazil has always had this understanding that youth equals beauty, but this year's Carnival is breaking that paradigm," Ortiz said as she strolled down Ipanema beach. "This shows you can be in a beautiful state, no matter what stage of life you are in." Historically, the Queen of the Drums was the most beautiful girl in the favela. Today she is usually a soap star, celebrity or beauty queen. Natália Guimarães, 24, won Miss Brazil in 2007. This year she parades for the Vila Isabel school for the second consecutive year “It’s wonderful,” she said. “Age doesn’t matter. It’s the personality that the queen shows that’s important.” Becoming queen is a great career move. “Today women use carnival to promote themselves,” said Meme de Oliveira, Ms de Oliveira’s brother and manager. “Luma doesn’t get involved in this. She goes to carnival because she likes carnival.” Luiza Brunet will be completing 25 carnivals this year in Sapucaí. "When the time comes to stop, I will not announce in advance." she told "This for me is a sacred place," said Luma de Oliveira, to reporters before dancing Samba non-stop for 80 minutes in front of about 70,000 spectators for the Portela school.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Brazil Carnaval 2009 |
| International financial crisis impacts Rio's Carnaval |
| The prices to create the traditional floats
and costumes have risen 70 percent, the price of steel 7 percent
and imported fabrics 30 percent, because of the depreciation in
the Brazilian currency reai vis-a-vis the US dollar. ‘This, without any doubt, is one of the most difficult carnivals in history. The schools have smaller budgets and I asked that the quality of the show not be compromised,’ said Liesa president Jorge Castanheira. Only the Grande Rio school was able to secure considerable financing this year, taking in 2.2 million reais (about USD $939,800) from companies in the city of Nice, because its theme for this year’s carnival is France. The $5.1 million that the state-run petroleum company Petrobras contributed in 2008 to the Independent League of Samba Schools, or Liesa, in Rio de Janeiro - the largest and most important in the country - was cut this year as a result of the crisis. The government of Rio de Janeiro state will contribute about $2 million and Rio city hall has provided $1.7 million, which along with the television rights and the sale of tickets to the Marques de Sapucai sambodrome, will provide each school with about $1.4 million. Rio’s main store for carnival items for the public - Casa Pinto - has seen sales fall by 15 percent so far this year, along with a rise of 12 percent in fabric prices and 25 percent in feathers and decorative jewelry and associated items. The Brazilian Hotel Association has calculated a reduction of 20 percent in room bookings during the Carnival season this year. |
| Revillion on Copacabana Beach |
| New Year Eve 2009 Samba schools join the world's largest party to give a taste of the upcoming world's largest show. |
| Steady rain failed to deter an estimated two million
Brazilians and visitors from the world's largest New Years
celebration December 31, 2008. Everyone will make a visit
to the sea, some to uncork bottles of champagne and toast others
to deliver an offerning to Iemanja, the goddess of the seas
Close to 2 million Rio residents and tourists
gathered on Rio's most famous beach Wednesday night for the
annual event that is billed as the world's largest party,
ringing in the New Year by dancing to salsa rhythms and
witnessing a spectacular, 24-ton, 21-minute fireworks display. Many Brazilians made flower offerings to Iemanja, the goddess of the sea who holds pride of place among millions of spiritual Brazilians and is a New Year's Eve fixture. In a centuries-old Afro-Brazilian rite, people offer perfume and rice in addition to flowers which are set into little boats and cast adrift in the water, all in a bid to secure an auspicious new year and to thank Iemanja for past favours. Some will enter the waters to jump over seven consecutive waves to make our seven wishes come true, another midnight tradition designed to bring good luck for the year ahead. Municipal authorities had organised celebrations in other points of the city, but they were hit with budget reductions as the financial crisis took its toll. Beach festivities were cancelled in Flamingo and the famed Ipanema beach.Tourism officials had estimated that 600,000 visitors would descend on Rio, the same number as 2007, when 70 per cent of the visitors were foreign tourists. But the number of international visitors this year dropped to about 30 per cent. |
| Going Global: | ||||||||||||
| As the moon waxes so does the date for Carnaval | ||||||||||||
20099Queens or Rainhas da
bateria
|
||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||
| Obama Mask the 2009 Rage | ||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||
|
Obama masks are all the rage as preparations for
the Carnival kick into high gear. When the party starts,
thousands of Brazilians with Obama masks will hit the streets.
According to Olga Valles, owner of one of Rio's oldest Carnival costume producers her company has already made 7,000 masks this year.The company is well known in Rio for its clever designs featuring politicians or other news makers. |
||||||||||||
| President Lula, expressed a more specific hope: that Washington will roll up its sleeves and bring a successful completion to the Doha round of world trade talks which he believes is key to helping developing countries with agriculture-based economies move out of poverty. | ||||||||||||
World's #1 Super model
|
||||||||||||
| Brazilian supermodel Giselle Bundchen
took photos on Carnaval Sunday at the Sambadrome in Rio de
Janeiro's Sambadrome. Later in the week, she reportedly married
NFL quarterback Tom Brady in California. Gisele and Tom also made sure to get some quality time together, hanging out on a Pacific Palisades balcony with Tom’s son John Edward Thomas Moynahan. In related news, Gisele’s grandfather Walter Bundchen recently expressed his approval of her marriage to Brady, telling press, “Marriage is a natural thing that happens in people’s lives. I wanted so much to see her married!” |
||||||||||||
| Bottomless Ban | ||||||||||||
| While most of the top 6
groups appearing in the Parade of Champions had topless dancers,
the judges drew the line at going bottomless, apparently
penalizing perennial special group contender Sao Clemente for
breaking a rule against display of genitalia during its
80-minute parade.
Viviane Castro, 25, a model and dancer, had lost her original "tapasexo" -- a small triangle 1.6-inch patch,of glitter used to cover the most intimate parts of her body. An improvised substitute glued between her legs right before the show also fell off on the parade strip. [MORE] |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| President Lula | ||||||||||||
| President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva spent eight hours watching
the 2009 Sunday parade staying till 5 a.m. Monday morning when
Beija Flor concluded. At one point, he tossed condoms down from
his box seat onto those parading, taking an active part in a
government anti-AIDS campaign to distribute 65 million
prophylactics this month. This was the first time he has turned
up for the party in Rio since taking power in 2003. [More about the Church & Carnaval in Brazil on our News Page] |
||||||||||||
Mangueira -
