Rio’s is the nation’s premier Carnival parade, and the contestants compete for cash prizes, status and fandom.
Vieira’s job contains serving to to choose his samba faculty’s theme for the yr, its materials for costumes and who will characteristic on the highest of majestic floats. In the end he decides how his faculty spends about 10 million Brazilian reals (virtually $2 million).
Vieira’s status as an artist — and his fame as a celebration animal — has stretched properly past Rio, attaining the sort of movie star a movie director would possibly acquire. He was just lately interviewed on Roda Viva, a public TV conventional program that usually listens to probably the most revered Brazilians.
He’s a fixture not solely in Carnival’s formal parade competitions, however of the casual block events all through town presently of yr.
“I can’t simply work, I have to really feel Carnival on the road to be comfortable,” Vieira instructed The Related Press in an interview. “Much more so after a pandemic that made us undergo a lot, made us keep residence in 2021.”
Vieira’s job title is carnavalesco.
He did it for Mangueira, the preferred samba faculty in Brazil, the place he gained the parade titles in 2016 and 2019. Later, he lifted two trophies within the second division, which makes him one of the profitable in recent times.
This yr he’s carnavalesco for Imperatriz Leopoldinense — named after a former Empress of Brazil — which just lately was relegated to second division and the place he hopes to earn the college’s first trophy since 2001.
Vieira says he doesn’t purpose merely to shock or thrill an viewers, however fairly to ship considerate statements.
“I’m not a carnavalesco of surprises. I’m not a person of spectacles,” Vieira stated within the interview whereas he concurrently labored on his group’s radio gear that they are going to use to speak throughout their parade.
His faculty’s parade this yr targeted on the lifetime of Nineteen Twenties and 30s bandit Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, higher recognized by Brazilians as Lampião. Vieira says he picks his themes with one motto in thoughts: “It’s the historical past that official historical past doesn’t inform.”
Lampião, for instance, was not portrayed by the samba faculty solely as a vicious felony but in addition as a courageous man who earned the respect of many fellow Brazilians.
Forward of this yr’s parade, Vieira walked via the performers fixing costumes and adjusting particulars with a smile on his face. He made certain all members had been doing their half to sing this yr’s theme music — a element that may make a distinction with the judges who sit within the viewers in Rio’s Sambadrome.
A key selection for Imperatriz Leopoldinense this yr was who to nominate as queen of the drum part — a job that the college historically has given to celebrities and trend fashions. Final yr it was pop singer Iza.
This time Vieira helped give the nod to a 21-year-old communications scholar and dancer named Maria Mariá who’s from one among Rio’s low-income favela neighborhoods. She was topped throughout an emotional ceremony final December on the samba faculty’s headquarters with a headpiece designed by Vieira.
“Leandro is a giant inspiration to us all. He exhibits us we will be the most effective in any discipline we like,” Mariá stated Tuesday whereas dressed as a satan who teases the character of Lampião.
Vieira takes his position within the Carnival parade trade severely, however says that collaborating within the vacation’s avenue events is simply as vital for him. Earlier within the week he joined the Prata Preta avenue social gathering carrying the costume of Brazilian singer Gal Costa, who died final yr.
“The soul of the social gathering is on the road,” he stated.