Samba Schools Themes & Songs

Samba Schools are a type of popular association characterized by singing, dancing, rehearsing, and learning how to play the samba, often in competitive order.

Being a kind of Public Institution in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the samba schools work all year round for 1 single performance at the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. Accompanied by Drums and their components – which can be up to five thousand people – they use allusive costumes to the proposed theme, and most of these components walk, and just a minority parades on “Floaters”, where huge sculptures are placed among other props.

Having these associations often of a local nature, arising largely from poor communities or suburbs, the samba schools usually represent a particular neighborhood, sub-district, or set of districts.

As a feature of the parade, the plot, often chosen at the beginning of the year just after the carnival celebrations, will be used for the Next Years carnival.

Meanwhile, from the main theme, the carnival director should write an entire synopsis, which will guide the production of costumes, floats, and samba composition. In this aspect, the evaluators must judge whether the school explained its plot during the parade.

For the 2023 Carnival, the 12 Samba Schools parading on the Special Group have chosen the following Songs: