Rio sambadrome parades begin with homage to lauded artist

With a tribute to Arlindo Cruz, a historic samba composer with health problems since suffering a stroke in 2017, the Imperio Serrano group began Sunday the famous parades of the samba ” escolas” at the Rio de Janeiro carnival’s Grupo Especial.

The group from the Madureira neighborhood, nine times champion of the carnival and which this year returned to the Special Group (a kind of first division), was the first to appear among the six paraded in the Rio de Janeiro sambadrome between Sunday night and early Monday morning.

The threat of Sunday rainstorms, which threatened the parades and forced other cities to cancel their parties after the death of 24 people, didn’t materialize.

Another six “escolas” will parade Monday night and the juries will define Wednesday, among the 12, the champion of the 2023 edition of the Rio de Janeiro carnival and the two that descend to second division.

To regain the title, which has eluded it since 1982, Imperio Serrano opted to turn its parade into a grandiose tribute to Arlindo Cruz, the popular composer who was the author of the lyrics of the sambas he brought to the sambadrome in 11 different editions of the carnival.

The parade entitled “Places of Arlindo” recreated the song “O meu lugar” (My Place) along the 700 meters of the sambadrome, one of the composer’s greatest classics and which recounts the simple life of cariocas in the suburbs and Rio favelas, where musicians gather in backyards to cheer up neighbors.

The music also stood out as one of the places in Arlindo, the headquarters of Imperio Serrano, “school” of the composer’s heart.

“Receive our thanks, king of this land. Here is your place,” it said.