‘Águia de Ouro’ Crowned São Paulo Carnaval Champion for First Time

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Águia de Ouro samba school, the fifth group to enter the Sambadrome in the early hours of Saturday through Sunday, is the winner of the special group in São Paulo 2020 Carnaval. This is the school’s first ever victory.

The winner’s samba-story addressed wisdom and took the title of “The power of knowledge. If knowledge is power… the knowledgeable make it happen, rather than wait for it to happen”.

Mestre Juca, from Águia de Ouro’s percussion section, stressed the community’s bonding for the victory. “I don’t know what I’m feeling, I’m very happy. The community of Pompeia has been going after this trophy for 44 years. The Águia de Ouro has always been great, I only have to thank everyone in the community”, he said right after the result was disclosed.

“We know what we went through with two days left to the parade, all the drummers of Aguia de Ouro deserved it. Two days before the Carnival, we didn’t have a drum set costume and the whole drum section got together and made the costumes and came here and granted our school the title,” he said.

The schools’ representatives all watched the voting calculations at the Anhembi Sambadrome, in the northern area of the city, yesterday afternoon, February 25th. The first category read during the voting was costumes. The São Paulo Samba Schools League had already decided that this would not be the criteria for a tie-breaker, after rains struck the shed of Pérola Negra Samba School on February 10th and destroyed some of the group’s costumes. The last requirement to have the scores read was the drum corps, which would also be the criteria for the tiebreaker if needed.

The runner-up was Mancha Verde, followed by Mocidade Alegre, Academicos do Tatuapé e Unidos da Vila Maria, all of which will parade this Saturday in the “Champions Parade”. In the last and second to last place, the Pérola Negra and X-9 Paulistana schools were relegated to the Access Group.

History

The Aguia de Ouro school was founded in 1976 in Vila Anglo Brasileira, west side of São Paulo. Its origin came from the cheering fan groups of soccer team Faíscas de Ouro. In 1977, the school made its debut in the São Paulo carnaval with the storyline “Jorge Amado’s Bahia”, winning the runner-up spot, which gave them access to the 4th carnival group.

In 1984, the school made its debut in the São Paulo Carnaval special group with the theme “A thousand lives, theater through the ages”, which for many was one of the most remarkable carnivals in history.

In 2018, Águia de Ouro paraded for the São Paulo Carnival Access Group, won the competition and joined the Special Group in the 2019 parade, finishing in sixth place.

Access Group

The Vai-vai samba school was the winner of the São Paulo Carnaval Access Group, and together with Acadêmicos do Tucuruvi, which came in second, will join the Special Group next year.

The Vai-Vai parade celebrated its 90th anniversary. The school was organized by a group of “gatecrashers” of samba circles of the Bixiga neighborhood, called Cai-Cai at the time. The name of Vai-Vai is a reference to the gesture of driving an unwanted person away with the expression “go, go”. Today, it is one of the most popular associations in São Paulo.

Source: Agência Brasil