CULTURE

Since the mid 2000s, Sertanejo Universitário (College Country), has come to be dominant in Brazilian popular music, as the industry shifted focus away from other established traditional and contemporary genres. This...

With a career that spanned nearly 70 years and 34 albums, Brazil's beloved singer and activist passed away peacefully at the age of 91 by Brian Mier In 1953, a young woman appeared...

Beco de Batman, the São Paulo alley that is world famous for its graffiti art, has been painted completely black in mourning over the police murder of popular local artist and...

This year’s Rio de Janeiro carnaval parade, which will take place on February 23rd and 24th, shows sings of being one of its most political ever, as voices of Rio’s black...

Former President of the Brazilian Republic Dilma Rousseff has publicly defended Academy Award nominated director Petra Costa, who has come under relentless attack from supporters of the 2016 Coup that her...

Brazilian director Petra Costa, whose third full length feature, 'The Edge of Democracy' has been nominated in the best documentary category at the 2020 Oscars, was interviewed on the Michael Brooks...

Scandal grows as smartphone videos show laughing police officers beating unarmed teenagers on a night of 9 deaths. São Paulo Governor João Doria defends the police officers involved by Brian Mier Paraisópolis is...

In October 1969 General Emílio Garrastazu Médici assumed the Brazilian Presidency. Whilst measured at that time by a specious economic “miracle” which failed to touch the majority of the population, his tenure...

By Daniel Hunt Director Kleber Mendonça Filho has an uncanny ability to divine dark currents flowing under the Brazilian psyche. His timing is extraordinary, and with his latest film Bacurau (Vitrine Filmes) co-written...

By Daniel Hunt. João Gilberto, who along with Antônio Carlos Jobim is considered the father of Bossa Nova, died on Saturday 6th July 2019, sixty years on from the release of his...

João Gilberto, native of Bahia and pioneer of Bossa Nova, which put Brazilian popular music on record players in homes across the planet during the 1960s, has died aged 88 in...

After 5 days of ridicule at the hands of Carnaval goers, right wing extremist President makes homophobic rant and tweets porn video to 3 million followers, including thousands of children. Brazil's 2019 Carnaval...

By Graham Douglas for Sounds and Colours. It was a hot day in the beautiful town of Amarante, the Portuguese base of Brazil’s MIMO festival. I’m chatting to Otto prior to his...

First published in its original form online at Stylus Magazine in November 2005. The article has been out of print since Stylus closed up shop but is still a reference for...

Brasil's Education crisis is not a crisis, it is a project. - Darcy Ribeiro. Across the political spectrum Brazilians will tell you that the principal problem in the country is education, yet...

Acclaimed music theorist and renowned author, Simon Reynolds pointed out in his article on the subject in The Village Voice, that the constant mining of Post-Punk during the noughties left slim...

By Andrew Cumming. Rio has Baile funk, Salvador has Axé, Belem and the Amazon have Brega, but what does the vast interior of Brazil have? That huge expanse of outback that takes...

By Gabriel Deslandes. Rio de Janeiro Carnaval parade groups, called Samba Schools, are preparing social and political criticism for the 2018 carnaval, with parades that will denounce politicians, social problems and recent...

On 30th October 2017, there was a new escalation in a cultural conflict which is slowly cauldronizing Brazilian society. Veteran singer songwriter, Caetano Veloso, legend of the Tropicália movement which emerged in a climate of...

On January 6, 2017, the traditional Folia dos Reis festival was declared historic cultural patrimony by the Minas Gerais state government. According to their research, the city with the most number...

Christina Rickardsson, 33, is a  successful Swedish businesswoman who spent the first years of her life as Christiana Mara Coelho , one of tens of thousands of homeless children who did...

Nick Cave was not quite at the level of acclaim he enjoys today when he visited Brasil with his band, The Bad Seeds in 1989, but he had attracted some attention at...

Chances are you have passed by one of Eduardo Kobra’s street art murals. His kaleidoscope style images have transformed city walls and sidewalks across the globe into colourful sights that pay...

SESC Pompeia is a cultural centre in the east zone of São Paulo, designed by the architect Lina Bo Bardi, and opened in 1982. The site is one of the world's great...

In 1947, the Brazilian artist Candido Portinari gave a talk at the Centro de Estudiantes de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires called ‘The social meaning of art.’ The environment was relaxed, with...

Brasil's most iconic songwriter Antônio Carlos Jobim died this week 20 years ago. Lost Sambista Richard Klein picks his favourite moments from the web. Richard's new book Lost Samba is serialised and...

Podem me prender, podem me bater / Podem até deixar-me sem comer / Que eu não mudo de opinião They could arrest me, they could beat me / They could even leave...

São Paulo trio Metá-Metá synthesise punk, jazz, samba and candomblé into a coherent, visceral whole, whilst maintaining traditions of Brazilian song and folklore. Their first release, simply called Metá-Metá, was a stunning...

A new film 'O que e Nosso - Reclaiming the Jungle" (Jezmo Clode, Murilo Yamanaka, Allyson Alapont), takes on documenting a unique amorphous movement, still a long way from fully understood, which...

The role of the Corinthians’ Democracy in Brasil’s re-democratization: Director Pedro Asbeg discusses Democracy in Black & White Fear of police, social tyranny and a highly repressive government once marked everyday life in...