Beija-Flor and Imperio Serrano!!

Beija-Flor has won AGAIN... This is the fifth time they've won in six years.
And IMPERIO SERRANO WON GRUPO A! YEAH!!!!
(The full Grupo A list is at the very end of this post.)

The quadra of Beija-Flor is well prepared with 50,000 cans of beer bought specially for today. You know there is a massive party going on today & all tonight.... And the news is already saying there are 4000 people wedged into the quadra of Império Serrano right now. RAH.

The Grupo Especial list is:
(Nota Dez means four perfect 10's from all 4 judges for that subject)

1. Beija-Flor - 399.3 points
Nota Dez: Bateria, Samba-Enredo, Harmonia, Evolução, Conjunto, Floats, Mestre-Sala & Porta-Bandeira

2. Salgueiro - 398 points
Nota Dez: Bateria, Samba-Enredo, Evolução, Enredo, Conjunto

3. Grande Rio - 396.9 points
Nota Dez: Bateria, Comissão de Frente

4. Portela - 396.8 points
Nota Dez: Samba-Enredo, Enredo

5. Unidos da Tijuca - 396.5 points

6. Imperatriz - 396.5 points
Nota Dez: Bateria, Samba-Enredo

7. Viradouro - 396 points
Nota Dez: Bateria, Comissão de Frente
And also note: This will be Paulo Barros' first Especial parade that did not make it into the Parade of Champions.

8. Mocidade - 395.1 points

9. Vila Isabel - 394.6 points

10. Mangueira - 393.9 points

11. Porto da Pedra - 388.2 points

12. São Clemente - 387.5 points

Wow, five escolas with perfect bateria scores. And most of the others just had a 9.9 or two. The only escolas that got lower than 9.9's for bateria were São Clemente, Porto da Pedra, and, interestingly, Vila Isabel. All of which are escolas that rose recently from Grupo A. I think it must just take years in Especial to build a crew of really loyal top drummers, and a culture that allows the bateria mestre to demand attendance and not be forced to give away all the bateria costumes for the entire chocalho section to a bunch of friends-of-the-president who waltz in at the last minute. (I don't know if that happened in São Clemente this year, but it sure did last year.)

MANGUEIRA'S STAR-OF-HELL
This is Mangueira's worst finish since 1994. Way too close to the bottom for comfort! They've taken a lot of flak for not choosing the 100th birthday of Cartola, Mangueira's revered samba composer, for their theme. That's probably why all four judges scored them fairly low for what should have been a good theme (the 100th anniversary of the northeastern music of frevo) Mangueira's choice of theme is suspected to be due to R$2.5 million in sponsorship from the city of Recife. Anyway, Mangueira also lost the beloved singer Beth Carvalho this year; she was so furious over not being allowed on a float last Carnaval that she quit Mangueira and paraded with Viradouro instead. This has also a year of pretty nasty drug scandals for Mangueira, and the bateria director & president of the escola both ended up resigning. And: their famed singer had a serious stroke, and was replaced by another singer who then had a heart attack, and he was replaced by a third who also had a near-heart attack.

O Globo sums it up saying that Mangueira has been under a "star of hell" this year . The president of the escola just said that he wanted to put this year behind him. O Globo points out ominously that recently, Mangueira's bateria directpr broke with tradition and let women play in the bateria. - THAT'S IT! Of course! They're cursed now!!


THE NUDITY PENALTY
São Clemente was penalized a half point - which is quite a lot - because their rainha's "tapa-sexo" fell off and she paraded completely nude (see previous post). I didn't know this, but it turns out LIESA has a rule against total nudity! "Each escola must prevent the presentation of people who have their genitalia visible, even if decorated and/or painted." The newspaper "Extra" quickly reported that they'd spotted 1 completely nude girl on one of Beija-Flor's floats, though she was covered in body paint:



But Beija-Flor wasn't penalized. Though apparently they lost two (!) points in 1992, when a male actor had his genitalia exposed. (Interesting that the female genitals cost a half point, but male genitals cost two points. Is it calculated per item of genitalia visible, or by volume or something?)

GRUPO A
1. Imperio Serrano - 239.8. PARABENS!
2. Rocinha - 239.1
Rocinha lost 0.5 point for not having enough baianas.
3. Santa Cruz - 238.9
4. Jacarepagua - 238.5
5. Uniao da Ilha - 238.4
A surprisingly low score - they should have nearly won.
6. Caprichosos - 237.9
7. Estácio de Sá - 237.7
8. Império da Tijuca - 234.7
9. Cubango - 234.6
10. Lins Imperial - 234.6

Poor Lins Imperial is being sent down to Grupo B, primarily due to their second-to-last float getting stuck in the fence for so long that they went over time - a whopping 2.5-point penalty. They would have finished in the middle of the pack otherwise.