Rio Queen of Carnival Contest 2012

Rio Carnival 2012 Brazil Carnival Queen of Carnival Contest

Brazil carnival Ooah! witnessed one of the most important parallel events which opens the 2012 Brazilian Carnival festivities: The Queen of Carnival Rio de Janeiro Contest. This preliminary event took place Friday, October 8th and was held in the City of Samba, aka, “Cidade do Samba”, close to the harbor area. The competition is being organized by Rio´s Tourism department and started out with more than 100 registered candidates, from girls ranging from 18 up to 35 years old. The objective of this night, the official semifinal, was to select the top 8 elite samba dancers from a total of 33 contenders: A tough mission not just for themselves, whom of which sometimes dedicated a full year for this contest , but to the specialized panel of judges. Let´s see how this samba festivity all happened.

Below, a video of the initial presentation with all contestants.

As journalists gathered at their allocated spot, family, friends, and supporters of the Rio Queen of Carnival contestants kept arriving, creating an atmosphere of excitement. Journalist were betting on their favorites and also comparing to last year’s edition, which was very competitive and had real carnival muses disputing for the title, won by Bianca Salgueiro, the current Queen of Carnival in Rio.


Below we see the interview of Angela dos Santos from Viradouro

Each candidate would have a chance to present themselves to a panel of judges, respond a question about Rio de Janeiro, and finally present in a 1 minute and half, the samba routine. The candidates would be judged upon several criteria including friendliness, ease, body harmony, sociability, carnival spirit, elegance, and finally samba dancing skills. To be noted, many of the samba dancers were very nervous when they were in front of the panel of jurors, somewhat natural, since some of them were 1st timers.

Of the 33 candidates enrolled on this semifinal phase, 27 attended. Most of the samba dancers are some how attached to an official Rio samba-school Many of them started to practice their samba skills in "little leagues" and "samba dancing school lesson for kids" at the age of 5 through 10. The winner, besides the crown and sash, will receive the amount of R$ 20,000. The second place will hold the title of 1st Princess of Rio de Janeiro Carnival 2012, a tiara and sash, plus R$ 15,000. The third placed will receive the title as the 2nd Princess of Rio de Janeiro Carnival 2012, winning a tiara, sash plus R$15,000. The mandates of the official Rio de Janeiro 2012 court of the carnival will begin on the date of their election ( October 28th 2011) and end on February 27, 2012 ( Official Brazilian Carnival closing in 2012).

Cristiane Alves Samba Dance Routine from Salgueiro Samba School

It was a true pleasure to see the emotion of the contestants when they spoke about their struggle to be participating of the contest, the support received by friends and family. Many of them inclusively praised God for helping them overcome so many financial and other struggles. But when the samba drums started playing, as if by magic, positive samba spirits blessed the catwalk and all of them presented beautiful samba routines full of energy and harmony. 

Below, an interesting interview with Susan Gonçalves:

Another marvelous aspect of the contest was to see the variety of the Brazilian identity and; samba culture, with women from many ethnic backgrounds: brunettes, native Brazilians, “mulatas”, white, black pearls and blonds, full and embodied in the spirit of their roots. This alone was a spectacle on its own, to see how Brazilian women are proud of their body, shape, ethnic background and color: A true power of the "carnival culture" in Brazil

Luciana Abreu Samba Routine:

After the presentation of all candidates, the panel of judges decided after almost 2 hours of a closed meeting, the final 8 candidates would be the following:

01 - Suzan Maria Souza Gonçalves (candidate #7)

02 - Patrícia Pontes Pereira Costa (candidate #10)

03 - Ângela Denise dos Santos (candidate #12)

04 - Letícia Martins Guimarães (candidate #13)

05 - Luciana Cordeiro de Abreu (candidate #14)

06 - Jaqueline de Jesus Rocha (candidate #15)

07 - Egili Aparecida de Oliveira Conceição (candidate #23)

08 - Cristiane de Souza Alves (candidate #30)

Leticia Guimaraes Samba Routine:

See you then on the great final, to be held October 28th 2012, certainly an event no samba enthusiast can miss!


Queen of Carnival 2012 - Location Cidade do Samba 7:00 PM

We posted above too few samba routines of some final candidates so you can get familiar for the contest on the 28th of October.