Brazilian Star Ivete Sangalo at Rock in Rio Lisboa: “Let’s Teach Intolerants to Love”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Sunday, September 8th, singer Ivete Sangalo was the main attraction at the 15th-anniversary celebration of Rock in Rio Lisboa, with a huge show in Portugal. In front of a big audience, the star made a point of sending a message against conservatism and made a speech in defense of sexual freedom.

“Kiss at will, embrace yourselves, be happy, because life goes by and we are concerned about what the other is thinking, when, in fact, the other who condemns, who is intolerant, he starts off as intolerant of himself, does not understand what is inside him. So, since he is not happy, he doesn’t want the others to be happy. Let’s teach the intolerant to love, to know how to love and be happy,” said the singer.

With no mention of politicians, Ivete said that it is “nice when we are free to show someone our affection”. “It’s wonderful when we have this freedom. I am so happy because my husband and I kiss each other, hug each other, love each other in any corner we want, everywhere we go, we are free to do that,” she said.

The artist also mentioned her nine-year-old son Marcelo and said that she teaches him that “the most important thing is the freedom to love, to be able to love”. “There is something that bothers us, as well as so many other things in today’s world, which is why I sing ‘beyond the horizon there must be some beautiful place to live in peace’… which is increasingly difficult in this horizon of ours, that we have the freedom to be able to love.

“When we want to love, there is always someone who tells us that it is not possible to love the way we want to love”. “There are different ways of loving and all of them are important to build our lives, our healthy society. There will never be a healthy society if the right to love is for some and not for all. This is true for education, for health, but in the midst of all this turmoil in the world, our only way out is to love and there are people who do not want to let people love freely,” she added.

In the audience, many Brazilians and also Portuguese began to curse right-wing Brazilian politicians who use hate speech to attack and segregate their own society. During Ivete’s statements, part of the public criticized President Jair Bolsonaro: “Hey, Bolsonaro, take it in the a**”, shouted the people.

Others saw the star’s speech as a protest against the Rio de Janeiro city government’s censorship of LGBTQ materials that were sold at the Book Fair.