A Brazilian band asks to topple President Bolsonaro at Rock in Rio

Rio de Janeiro, Sep 8 (EFE).- The Brazilian band “Francisco, el Hombre” starred this Thursday in the most political concert to date at Rock in Rio, whose new edition concludes on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, with a performance in the one that asked to “overthrow” the president of Brazil, the far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro.

Despite the fact that several of the Brazilian bands that performed last week made mention of the presidential elections on October 2 in Brazil and criticized the far-right leader, the group from São Paulo made an explicitly political concert with attacks on Bolsonaro and praise for former president Luiz Inácio. Lula da Silva, candidate for a left-wing coalition and top favorite.

The rapper Emicida, who offered a concert on Sunday and was one of the few to address the electoral dispute, said that he could not stop criticizing Bolsonaro despite the fact that “someone”, apparently the organization, had warned him that “not It was in good taste to talk about politics at the concert.”

The São Paulo residents were not intimidated by the warning and made clear their preference for Lula, who leads all voting intention polls with about 44%, compared to the 32% attributed to the current president and candidate for re-election.

“Francisco, el Hombre”, the Brazilian band with the greatest connection to Latin American music -it has two Mexican nationalized Brazilians among its founders-, performed on one of the secondary stages of Rock in Rio and in its greeting set the tone for what would be the rest of the concert by saying “good night to the anti-fascist Rock in Rio”.

The peak of his political message was the performance of the song “Rip off the king’s head” in which he explicitly said that, in order to end the pain and change the current situation, the people have to unite to overthrow the president.

“Bring me the president’s head,” vocalist Sebastian shouted amidst a small audience at the start of the concert, but which gradually grew to fill the space and began shouting the traditional leftist slogan “Bolsonaro out.”

The lively public also began to sing Lula’s election campaign slogan, which the musicians from “Francisco, el Hombre” accompanied on the guitar to make their preference clear.

The band, which turned its concert into a true carnival with wheels on the stage and choreographies, also warned that those who do not dance are “militiamen”, referring to the vigilante groups that dominate some favelas in Rio de Janeiro and that are supposedly associated with political sectors related to Bolsonaro.

The band also displayed a flag of the combative Movement of the Landless (MST), an organization allied to Lula, in another act that encouraged shouting against the far-right leader.

“Francisco, el Hombre” had already made his political preference clear in his first performance at Rock in Rio, in 2019, when they played alongside the Colombian band Monsier Periné and brought to the stage images of the overthrown president Dilma Rousseff and the murdered political activist Marielle Franco.

Although they did not perform it this Thursday, the band has among its compositions the song “Bolso Nada”, in which they criticize the current head of state for his questionable sexist, racist and misogynistic statements.

The new edition of Rock in Rio, the twenty-first in its history and the ninth in the Brazilian city where it was born in 1985, reaches its fourth day this Thursday, after three held last week and which were dedicated to rap, pop and metal.

The current edition has seven days (September 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11) in which bands such as Iron Maiden, Coldplay, Greenday, Guns N’ Roses, Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Gilberto Gil, Dua Lipa, Post Malone, Fall out boy, Camila Cabello and Avril Lavigne, among others. EFE

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