Sao Paulo
To the shouts of Drake and “Ole, ole, ole, ole, Skrillex, Skrillex,” American DJ Skrillex took to the Budweiser stage at Lollapalooza on Sunday night with the thankless task of filling in at the last minute for the night’s headliner.
Drake, the Canadian rapper, who would be making his second visit to Brazil and his first to São Paulo, warned of the cancellation of the presentation that morning of the same day. The official announcement only cited unforeseen circumstances for the musician, who was spotted leaving a Miami nightclub on Saturday night.
Before the show started, when the main stages are usually packed with fans looking for a good seat for the headliner of the day, the front part of the Budweiser stage was empty for a festival of this caliber.
The show started to the tune of “Carinhoso” by Marisa Monte and Paulinho da Viola as the DJ came down from the stage and greeted the audience.
With a looping snippet of the chorus “I’ll be happy” and “São Paulo in a Jungle” amidst sirens and a heavy beat, the audience by the stage railing seemed to forget that Drake would set foot there one day, and he embodied the repertoire of the Perry stage dedicated to electronic music.
Remixing Brazilian music as a tribute to audiences is a hallmark of modern DJs visiting the country. Jamie XX, the name that closed the electronic stage on Saturday, did the same with “Tô” by Tom Zé.
In the first 15 minutes of the show, the DJ called for pyrotechnics with flames, fireworks and smoke to the sounds of “Ratata”. He faced an audience that kept jumping with their hands up with his “Fireflies” with a Rosalía remix.
Fans who had previously watched Swedish diva Tove Lo’s soldout show from the back of the track moved slightly to the main stage railing after the crowd exited the venue to see Rosalía on the Chevrolet stage.
There was also a chorus of curses at Drake before Skrillex’s appearance. A small group applauded the DJ when there were about ten minutes left before the show was scheduled to start.
The Canadian rapper’s cancellation wasn’t bad news for everyone. For Felipe Zaghetti, 28, a Skrillex fan, the news made up for other cancellations that had disappointed him.
He bought a Lollapass, the ticket for the three days of the event, before all attractions were confirmed. Mirava 100 Gecs and Blink182 two groups that canceled the trip to Brazil.
“I started to think whatever came was fine,” he says, praising the replacement of Saturday’s headliner by Twenty One Pilots.
He and his friends didn’t even think of leaving the main stage to see Spanish Rosalía, the strong name of the evening with Drake’s departure from the lineup. “I don’t know any of their songs. I would go if a friend really wanted to come over,” he said.
Like Drake, the artist canceled a number of shows last year. He blamed mishandled grief for his mother’s death in 2015, which culminated in a drinking problem.
But far removed from Drake’s trap and hiphop world, Skrillex was a strong name in dubstep and drum ‘n’ bass, electronic styles characterized by high speed and heavy bass.
This is Skrillex’s third appearance at Brazil’s Lollapalooza, although this is his first as a substitute and as a headliner. He came to the first edition of the festival in 2012, in 2015 and 2016 as part of the duo Jack Ü with Diplo.
Without an album since 2015, the year of “Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü”, filled with strong names like Justin Bieber with the hit “Were Are Ü Now”, the artist returned this year in a double dose.
He released Quest for Fire with Missy Elliott and Four Tet and Don’t Get Too Close, a nod to the DJ’s emo roots who was a hardcore singer, with collaborations with Kid Cudi and Justin Bieber.
His last solo work before that was “Recess” in 2014.