Brazil
Roger Waters played Pink Floyd hits and criticized human rights violations at a show this Tuesday (24) at the Mané Garrincha Stadium in Brasília. This is the first performance of his farewell tour “This is Not a Drill” in Brazil. The artist also visits São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba.
With a work well known to the audience, the artist opened with a slower version of “Comfortably Numb” and followed with hits such as “Another Brick in the Wall” and “Wish You Were Here” and also brought songs to the show You are not one of them most renowned in the band’s repertoire.
Although he began the show with a warning that he would be talking about politics, Waters avoided taking strong positions on Israel’s war against Hamas in the first half of the show. The founder of Pink Floyd mentioned the murder of a Palestinian in a series of random deaths around the world that are outside the context of the current conflict. Rio de Janeiro was among the places where the artist reported complaints.
In another series of reviews shown on the show’s screens, the artist called for the human rights of Palestinians, indigenous peoples, transgender people and other groups who are victims of violence.
Waters also repeated the positions against capitalism and fascism known from his work and described American presidents including Obama and Trump as war criminals. He did not wear the Nazi uniform costume that caused controversy in the country before the tour arrived.
In June, lawyer Ary Bergher, vice president of the Israeli Confederation of Brazil, filed a lawsuit against singer Roger Waters, seeking to prevent him from entering the country and performing at performances scheduled for October and November.
The action was motivated by Waters wearing black clothing and red armbands with an emblem resembling the swastika. In the request, Bergher and two lawyers requested a police escort for any presentations by the artist.
When Waters learned that he was being investigated by German police for the same reason, he spoke out. “The questioned elements of my performance are clearly a statement against fascism, injustice and bigotry in all their forms,” he said.
“Attempts to portray these elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated. The portrayal of a crazy fascist demagogue has been a feature of my shows since Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ in 1980.”
On that occasion, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, declared that supporting Nazism in Brazil was a crime, but ruled out prior censorship of the broadcasts. “It is a general rule that administrative authorities cannot carry out prior censorship, and it is possible for the judiciary to intervene when there is a threat of violation of the rights of people or communities,” the former Twitterer wrote in a post on X.