Marina Diamandis says ‘censorship is alive and well’ in Brazil as government tries to silence musicians
Musician led crowd in chants of ‘f*** Bolsonaro’ at Lollapalooza Brasil
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Your support makes all the difference.Marina Diamandis has spoken out against censorship in Brazil after Lollapalooza was banned from allowing “political demonstrations” on stage.
The singer, who used to perform as Marina and the Diamonds, is currently touring South America and performed at Lollapalooza Brasil over the weekend, during which she spoke out against Jair Bolsonaro’s government.
“F*** Putin. F*** Bolsonaro. F*** him,” Diamandis told crowds at the São Paulo festival on Friday (25 March). “We are sick of this energy.”
Following the performance, a Brazilian judge ordered the festival to ban “political demonstrations” from future events, after a legal challenge from Bolsonaro’s party.
On Tuesday (29 March), Diamandis shared a picture to Instagram from the festival.
“Dreams do come true. And censorship is still alive and well,” Diamandis wrote.
“Bolsonaro’s lawyers have petitioned to the supreme electoral court to stop artists from making ‘political demonstrations’ due to me and two other artists voicing opinions about him at Lolla.”
She continued: “So many of us are sick of these (usually white) older men who think they own the countries they ‘lead’. They don’t own anything — and they are weaker than we think. When people feel they have no power they try to take it away from others.”
Elsewhere at the festival, Pabllo Vittar had led chants of “get out Bolsonaro” and waved a towel featuring his left-wing political opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Lawyers claimed that the comments from the artists were “blatant” propaganda, with the judge ruling that future examples of “ostentatious and extemporaneous” pre-election comments were forbidden, with fines of roughly £8,000.