Carnival 2023: plot theme, Zeca Pagodinho wants free beer for the audience

Confirmed as the theme of the Greater Rio theme for 2023, Zeca Pagodinho met this Wednesday (4th) with the school’s management and carnival, current champion of Rio’s Carnival. The meeting was for a first exchange of ideas, but he tells the F5 who “didn’t even meddle” in what was being said.

“I just went to listen to their ideas. I don’t understand Carnival, maybe I’ll say something stupid and it ends up hurting?”, he asks, with the TV at home in the background, turned on at high volume. “It’s Eri Johnson’s show, I love him. The guy is a character.” Zeca then remembers that she gave an idea for the parade, yes.

He told the people at Grande Rio that he would love it if they would bow to his school from the heart. “I’m from Porto, right? It’s going to be the centenary year, I asked us to say hello to Portela…”. He didn’t even need to make the request official. Jayder Soares, president of the Duque de Caxias tricolor, had already thought about it, guarantees Zeca.

The relationship between the two is very close. “Jayder is a very good friend of mine, he goes to my house, I go to everything he has recommended for me,” says the samba singer, who says he also feels “at home” in Grande Rio. The school is headquartered in the municipality of Duque de Caxias, where he has maintained his farm for over 30 years, in the district of Xerém. The place has become a tourist spot and Zeca is fully connected to the local community.

It is not today that the school thinks of honoring him. The idea came about five years ago, but the musician was always reticent. “I didn’t know it was that important, I swear to you.” The pandemic and the low spirits of isolation made Zeca rethink the invitation, for the general happiness of fans, friends, and family.

“My daughter Duda (Maria Eduarda) said she wants a car just for her, hahaha. I asked: ‘Do you think it’s Paolla?'”, he says, referring to the drum queen, Paolla Oliveira. She came on the ground, ahead of the percussionists, but with the protagonism of a great prominence, in the highest of cars.

Friends keep calling to celebrate (“And also to ask to participate, I’ll need two days of parade to get everyone”); the family is euphoric, but Mônica Silva, with whom he has been married for 36 years, still does not know if she will go to Sapucaí. “She’s evangelical, isn’t she? I don’t know if she will. But she’s happy with it all,” she assures.

Part of his list of “wants” (and not requests, he makes a point of emphasizing) the distribution of beer to the audience (“Wouldn’t it be great?”) and a giant allegory of São Jorge – which is already certain. Officially, Grande Rio announced that the idea of ​​the tribute to Zeca came from the carnival artists Gabriel Haddad and Leonardo Bora, and that the school will honor the musical universe of an artist whose work is “a look at the suburbs, the ‘old Baixada’, street parties and popular religiosity”.