POPDUST
16 September 2015 by Emma Gaedeke
On Friday, Rock in Rio 2015 will kick off its 30th edition of the festival with performances by Onerepublic, The Script, and none other than the legendary band Queen, with Adam Lambert. Queen appears to be garnering most of the attention for their upcoming performance, as according to international ticketing company Ticketbis, 19.4 percent of tickets sold for the event have been for Queen’s stage performance, the most out of any of the seven main acts. And this is no coincidence, as Queen has a very unique and special relationship with this famous festival. I
n 1985, the band opened for the first edition of Rock in Rio, and moved Brazil with an outstanding performance that ended in the audience passionately singing along to “Love Of My Life,” marking one of the most iconic moments in the history of the festival. “The audience just took over the song and sang it beautifully to the end,” remembers drummer Roger Taylor in an interview with Globo. Now 30 years later, the band is back, this time with Adam Lambert elegantly filling the boots of Freddie Mercury, who passed away in 1991.
The festival, which will take place over seven days, will also see performances by Katy Perry, Rihanna, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Metallica, System of a Down, and Slipknot. The second most popular act, as registered by Ticketbis, is Rod Stewart with 18.8 percent of total sales for Rock in Rio 2015. Stewart will be sharing the main act slot with Elton John and the two will be supported by Seal and Os Paralamas do Sucesso. This also comes as no surprise, considering both acts have a huge following all over the country, especially Elton John, who has toured Brazil numerous times in the last decade. These iconic acts will hit the Palco Mundo (World Stage) on Sunday, Sept 20.
The third most sought-after acts would be Metallica, supported by Motley Crue, Royal Blood and Gojira with 16.2 percent of sales. These heavy-rock themed performances will take place on Saturday, Sept 19.
In addition to everything announced, the show will be celebrating Rio’s 450th anniversary and will have a stage dedicated only to honoring the history and culture of the city with performances by local stars such as Buchecha, Maria Rita, Roberta Sá, Gabriel O Pensador, Fernanda Abreu and several others. The artists will encompass various musical genres into their performances from samba and chorinho to hip hop, pop, funk, and of course… rock!