The fourteen associations of the São Paulo Special Group will cross the Anhembi sambadrome on February 28th and March 1st in search of the 2025 Carnival champion trophy. In this mission, the schools will count on the presence of celebrities and people from their communities to brighten up the parades in front of their drums.
Names like Viviane Araújo and Sabrina Sato, for example, lead the line of famous drum queens from the São Paulo Carnival elite. Sabrina Sato, Carla Prata and even presenter and commentator Milton Cunha will also perform the role; the latter will even come in front of the rhythmists from Estrela do Terceiro Milênio as a way of paying homage to the importance of Pará for the festivities, as the school will have the LGBTQIAPN+ population as its theme in 2025.
All of them, however, appear behind Gracyanne Barbosa in the list of celebrities who hold positions in São Paulo’s most searched drum courts on Google. The digital influencer is confined to BBB25 and, therefore, does not know if she will be able to honor her commitment and parade as the drum godmother of Camisa Verde e Branco. At the Barra Funda school, she shares space with the drum queen Sophia Ferro, who is the school’s child.
On the other hand, other queens who began their journey anonymously and gained prominence thanks to their involvement in the world of samba schools will also shine at Anhembi. This is the case of Aline Oliveira, veteran who reigns in the current two-time champion of São Paulo Carnival — Mocidade Alegre — for more than ten years, and Madu Fraga, from Vai-Vai. Check out the complete list of drum queens from Grupo Especial de São Paulo in the gallery above.
This content was originally published in Carnival 2025: meet the drum queens of Grupo Especial de SP on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil

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