Brazilian showbiz stars are playing a vital role in adding spark to their general elections being held in October 2022. In bright-red, body-hugging tights with a Workers’ Party logo on the rear, Brazilian pop star Anitta caresses a dance pole and urges her 60 million Instagram followers to vote for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, main rival of Bolsonaro.
Brazilian Artists like Anitta are pulling out all the stops and star power ahead of elections Sunday in a bid to sway voters either for leftist Lula or his far-right rival Jair Bolsonaro.
“When a celebrity supports a candidate… she influences her fans in a more personal way, erasing that feeling of distrust,” Issaaf Karhawi, a social media researcher at the University of Sao Paulo, told media.
At a concert-style campaign event in Sao Paulo last week, pro-Lula video messages from American actors Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover added to the message of “hope” being championed by local celebrities on stage.
Sertanejo star Gusttavo Lima, 33, declared his support for Bolsonaro, brandishing an assault rifle in a video supporting the presidential candidate’s pro-gun policies.
At a concert in Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, celebrity Lima, having more than 44 million followers on Instagram, launched into a diatribe against the “communism” he and Bolsonaro claim Lula embodies and defended the incumbent president’s “God, homeland and family” values.
Left-wing celebrity activism is nothing new for Brazil, dating to the opposition movement against the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, said historian Paulo Cesar Gomes of the Fluminense Federal University.
While Anitta or fellow singer Ludmilla have their fans largely in Brazil’s sprawling urban favelas, the sertanejo stars appeal to rural voters in Bolsonaro’s conservative bastions.
But are these celebrity interventions making a difference?
Possibly, said Karhawi, by galvanizing a large number of young people active on social media to vote.
To this end, Anitta, the first Brazilian singer to reach the top of Spotify’s hit parade, told fans she would only pose for photos with those who were registered to vote.
Calls for voter mobilization also came all the way from the United States.
In April, Leonardo DiCaprio tweeted: “Brazil is home to the Amazon and other ecosystems critical to climate change. What happens there matters to us all and youth voting is key in driving change for a healthy planet.”
Bolsonaro responded at the time, tweeting: “Thanks for your support, Leo! It’s really important to have every Brazilian voting in the coming elections.”
