The Lollapalooza festival, three days of music in São Paulo with which thousands of people wanted to launch post-pandemic life in a big way, turned last weekend into an outcry against censorship and against President Jair Bolsonaro in response to a complaint presented by his party with the intention of silencing critics. The shot clearly backfired because the far-right became the favorite target of criticism and attacks from the dozens of artists who followed one another on stage. The event was also marked by mourning for the drummer of the Foo Fightersgroup that was on the poster.
Anitta, the most international Brazilian artist, has been openly against the president on social networks for some time. She is part of a recent political awareness that she herself has detailed to her fans. And this time she used irony to make it clear that with the money she earns, the fine of 50,000 reais was not going to scare her in any way. She offered to pay the penalty for anyone affected. “Everyone votes for who they want. However, prohibiting people from expressing their discontent with the government is censorship. […]. And I will fight her with all my weapons,” he said six months before an election in which former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is now her favorite.
The controversy has acquired such magnitude that Bolsonaro has apparently requested the withdrawal of the complaint that triggered the mess. The origin was a flag with the image that the singer Pabllo Vittar exhibited during her performance. The Liberal Party, which Bolsonaro has just joined to contest the elections, rushed to court.
One of the judges of the Superior Electoral Court decided to prohibit the political statements of the artists during the festival with the threat of fining the organizers. His argument was that the pronouncements involve irregular electoral propaganda. The matter then led to one of those judicial entanglements so frequent in Brazil. And he turned the event into the most massive political act of recent times. It didn’t take long for the artists to be more direct in their criticism and their preferences.
The cries against Bolsonaro that rang out for three days were enthusiastically embraced by some of the stars. A group placed a canvas with a huge “Fora, Bolsonaro (Bolsonaro Out)” on the stage. The most popular rappers in Brazil, with part of Os Racionáis and Emicida in the lead, had a musical memory for the guerrilla Carlos Marighella, the great enemy of the dictatorship, the same one that Bolsonaro constantly extols.
Practical, Emicida took the opportunity to encourage the youngest to get the title of voter. Brazil allows voting from the age of 16, but it is only mandatory from the age of 18. As the surveys show little mobilization in this age group and the elections can be very close, increasing the electorate of the younger is a of the flags that is hovering on the left.
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After the stoppage imposed by the coronavirus, the expectations were enormous. The poster was high, with many of the most followed singers, bands and rappers in Brazil and some international artists such as Miley Cyrus, who did a duet with Anitta, and the Foo Fighters, who canceled their presence after the drummer’s death.
The festival ended on Sunday night, but the legal mess continues. The Superior Electoral Court is pending to convene a plenary session so that the rest of the magistrates rule on the ruling of their colleague who threatened with fines those who made political pronouncements.
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