Carnival is one of the most important cultural and economical events in Brazil.
Brazil’s biggest television broadcaster, TV Globo, holds a contest every year to find the Musa do Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro (Muse of the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro) — a Samba girl who best represents the Carnival in Rio. Think of it like the “Miss Country” competitions throughout the world each year.
My sister-in-law, Luciana, won second place out of twelve competitors, and it was her first appearance in this big TV Globo contest!
Rio de Janeiro’s twelve major Samba schools pick their best Samba girls to represent their schools on TV Globo for this big contest. Mangueira, the Samba school Luciana dances for and was chosen to represent Mangueira in the TV Globo contest, is one of the biggest and oldest Samba schools in Rio.
The TV Globo contest was divided into two rounds. The first round (to pick the four finalists) was divided into two groups. Luciana performed in the first group (six participants) which was broadcasted on January 17.
Here is the video from that day where she won first place, showing her incredible first-class performance…
The Final, recorded on February 5 and divided into two semi-finals, was shown on TV last Saturday, February 14.
Here’s Luciana — first showcasing her home, then dancing to win the second semi-final…
And here are the voters, including the audience, clearly voting her to enter the Grand Final…
Based on Internet votes, Luciana is even the clear winner of all twelve participants, thus she is The Internet Muse of the Carnaval of Rio de Janeiro 2009…
(The winner, Suellen from Portela, is voted fourth place here.)
Please join me in on a BIG Congratulations (Brazilian: Parabens) to Luciana Domingos Faustini by submitting a comment below! :-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
P.S. Luciana: Você é nossa Musa do Carnaval 2009 — uma garota muito simpatica, com estilo, corpo perfeito, elegante, muito profissional, samba como ninguem, e linda demais. Parabens! :-)
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