Virginia Fonseca is announced as a new drum queen of Grande Rio

The influencer Virginia Fonseca was announced as the new drum queen of Grande Rio for the carnival of 2026, this Thursday (22). She assumes the place of actress Paolla Oliveira, who said goodbye to the Duque de Caxias samba school in Baixada Fluminense this year at Marquês de Sapucaí.

Heleninha Roitman’s interpreter in the soap opera “Everything goes “occupied the post of drum queen of Grande Rio initially between 2009 and 2010, and then returned in 2020, maintaining until 2025.

Virginia, who is married to singer Zé Felipe, was in the school shed in the city of samba to officialize the invitation. Then she posed with the board and members of the Marquis of Sapucaí sambadrome: “Hello, Caxias community! A lot of honor to get here and be with you in Great River. That is the beginning of a beautiful story. Our Carnival has started! All honor and glory to God, 2025 is ours and 2026 too,” she wrote in Instagram publication.

Last week, Virginia received the invitation of the board of Grande Rio to be a replacement of Paolla Oliveira and already signaled positively at the time. The definitive answer happened days later. The name of the influencer was not well received by the association fans.

In the social networks of Grande Rio, many criticisms for the choice. “We don’t want Virginia as Queen. This woman is all wrong,” wrote a netizen. “We deserve a decent queen and at least know where Caxias is,” protested another follower.

Despite criticism, the school’s board justifies the choice based on the influencer’s viralization potential, which could attract more visibility to Greater Rio projects. Recently the name of Virginia was involved in the controversy of the BETS CPI. She deposed as a witness because of the advertising work she performs for gambling companies and was widely criticized for laughing at various times of the testimony, and was tiered by parliamentarians.