Samba shut up the voice of big corporate media in Brazil...
Starring role! Rio carnival dancers sparkle at samba parade as 72,000 spectators watch 'greatest show on Earth' in sweltering heat
Rio de Janeiro came alive on Sunday night as the Brazilian city's famous carnival hit its peak with huge parade
Thousands of dancers wearing colourful and outlandish costumes performed to pounding samba anthems
Two-night extravaganza began in city's Sambodromo, where 72,000 spectators sat in roasting conditionsIt is dubbed the 'greatest show on Earth' with thousands of sparkling Brazilian dancers ignoring sweltering heat to put on a spectacular samba parade.
Rio de Janeiro came alive on Sunday night as the city's carnival hit its peak in a stunning cocktail of glamour, eccentric costumes and pounding samba anthems.
The two-night extravaganza began in the Sambodromo, where 72,000 spectators sat in roasting conditions, with many thousands more milling around outside selling drinks, putting on colourful outfits or simply soaking up the atmosphere because they were unable to get tickets.
But amid the feather headdresses, sparkly G-strings and dancers dressed as everything from trees to Chinese merchants,
serious politics marked this year's parades.
One reveller dressed up as Dracula to represent Brazilian President Michel Temer while a giant backside mocked Rio de Janeiro's mayor during the unusually politicised event.
Latin America's biggest country is only just emerging from its worst recession on record. Violent crime in cities like Rio is rocketing, and politics is riddled with corruption and lack of leadership ahead of October presidential elections.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5380911/Rio-carnival-dancers-sparkle-greatest-Earth.htmlRio kicks off Carnival parade with anti-establishment tone
IO DE JANEIRO (AP) — There are some Brazilians who probably aren't finding much to enjoy in Rio de Janeiro's colorful Carnival parades — the mayor, the governor and the president.An anti-establishment tone is echoing through this year's celebrations in Brazil. And Sunday night's parade at Rio's Sambadrome featured entries that blasted the country's political leadership at a moment of economic slump and political scandal.
President Michel Temer, Rio de Janeiro state Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao and Rio Mayor Marcelo Crivella were expected to skip the two-day bash at the Sambadrome. The samba parades used to be a magnet for politicians before a sprawling corruption investigation around state-run oil giant Petrobras began in 2014. Now officeholders fear being booed and even attacked by critics during the party.
Temer, whose popularity is in single digits, spent his last Carnival as president with a group of 40 people on a military-guarded beach south of Rio. Earlier a few hundred revelers in the capital of Brasilia organized a street party to make fun of his recent poor health and his unpopular pension overhaul.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEoMv9B3ZHw