The Niterói Academic Samba School will debut in the special group of the Rio Carnival elite with a tribute to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Champion of the Gold series in 2025, the association released this Saturday (2) the samba plot that will take to the Marquis of Sapucaí in 2026: From Alto do Mulungu comes the hope: Lula, the worker of Brazil.
The premiere on the samba catwalk will be on Sunday, February 15, 2026, in the first of the three nights of parade.
The blue and white of the Rio Metropolitan Region will parade with the plot of Carnival Tiago Martins and the enredened Igor Ricardo, responsible for the creation and development of the plot.
Right in the introduction to present the synopsis – which is the text that schools spread to explain the plot -, Igor Ricardo points out that the former metalurgical, who returned to the presidency to fulfill a third term, is the most successful politician of his time.
Samba recalls that Lula was born in the Pernambuco Agreste of his mother, Dona Lindu, in a family of eight children. The text also refers to the fantastic world to explain the inevitable of family life in that region.
“Life there was hard. But fear of the Silva family was one of the things of the other world. What haunted them was the stories of soul soul: the porridge, an old hideous old man who loved to eat the liver of the little ones who did not behave; the dead that came back from the beyond … the snake that went hidden at night to suck the milk of the breastfeeding woman.”
The jokes were with animals that appeared in the backyard like calangos, rabbits, cars, hummingbirds and even snails.
“The landscape of the Agreste was the amusement park of those boys, and Lula’s favorite ‘toy’ was Mulungu’s foot from around his home.
The story goes on with the move to Sao Paulo to escape the drought that punished Garanhuns in 1952.
“They huddled things in a muggle, kept the portraits hanging from the wall, took the images of Santa Luzia and St. Joseph from their altars and were … It was thirteen days and thirteen nights that seemed endless on a wooden tabuu stick.”
The plot will also remember the period of the military dictatorship and the union struggle that made Lula one of the targets of the military, as well as the “tragedy of widowhood and the death of Dona Lindu”.
The samba-plot of Niterói Academics will also address Lula’s trajectory and political leadership, who became a constituent deputy and president with the commitment to help the poor.
“Nothing Lula did, he did alone. His leadership was born, grew and consolidated as an expression of a floor together.”
Other honors
Niterói Academics is not the only one who will pay tribute to personalities at the 2026 Carnival. Independent Youth will bring to the avenue a plot about Rita Lee. At Empress Leopoldinense, the carnival Leandro Vieira chose to tell the story of Ney Matogrosso. Viradouro will celebrate the trajectory of the battery master Ciça with 40 years of samba.
Already Vila Isabel will take to the avenue the universe of the Brazilian composer, singer and painter Heitor dos Prazeres, one of the founders of the first samba schools in Brazil. Salgueiro will bring the plot The delirious carnival journey of the teacher who was not afraid of witch, cod or the pirate of the stupid To reverence the carnival Rosa Magalhães – champion nine times in samba schools in Rio.
The tributes still extend to Portela with the plot The mystery of the prince of Barra – The Prayer of the Negrinho and the resurrection of his crown under the open sky of Rio Grandewhich will show the lives of Custódio Joaquim de Almeida, Prince Custódio, African leader in Porto Alegre.
To close the last night of parades the hose will take to Sapucaí the plot Mestre Sacaca do Encanto Tucuju – The Guardian of the Black Amazonto speak of the healer and defender of the forest along with the manifestations of local culture.
The series of honors also has writer Carolina Maria de Jesus in Unidos da Tijuca. The school will develop the plot of the author of the book Dump room highlighting her importance for Brazilian literature.
