Country Profile: Brazil

Brazil is South America’s biggest country and its most vibrant market, but in spite of a rollicking 2022, it also remains a major growth prospect.

“It’s a giant market of more than 200m consumers,” says Rock in Rio CEO Luis Justo. “Conditions in Brazil today are much better than in the past, as now we have super-prepared infrastructures and venues and world-class technical and professional teams. I would say that very quickly Brazil will become one of the main countries in the world for the international tour circuit.”

“Conditions in Brazil today are much better than in the past, as now we have super-prepared infrastructures and venues and world-class technical and professional teams”

As far as Live Nation is concerned, it is already well on its way. The corporate operated in partnership with local powerhouse T4F in Brazil until 2017, when it went out on its own under former T4F man Alexandre Faria. In a few years, Live Nation has assumed the position of market leader in Brazil, its tours in 2022 including Metallica, Harry Styles, Dua Lipa, and others, with a postponed Coldplay stint in São Paulo (six nights) and Rio de Janeiro (two more) held over into 2023.

Brazil doesn’t exist in isolation for most of its key players these days – Live Nation, Move Concerts, former T4F promoter Jose Muniz’s Mercury Concerts – all operate across the
continent. Bruce Moran, Live Nation president of Latin America, has described the record-breaking sales of 2022 as “unprecedented, spectacular and, for me, career-affirming,” having flown the flag for the region for decades.

“Live Nation Latin America is poised already to have a strong 2023. The pace of sales, the number of shows, and the multiple-show engagement have never ever been seen before in the region,”

“Live Nation Latin America is poised already to have a strong 2023. The pace of sales, the number of shows, and the multiple-show engagement have never ever been seen before in the region,” he told IQ in November, noting that the postponement of the Coldplay dates enabled the addition of two Curitiba sell-outs to the run, as well as a strategic move from the 45,000-cap Allianz Parque in São Paulo to the same city’s 67,000-cap Estádio do Morumbi.

For next year, Live Nation also has the Backstreet Boys, Imagine Dragons, and Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard on sale, with more events to be added. Rock in Rio, too, made a triumphant post-Covid comeback, with more than 700,000 people attending its Brazil edition.

“This year, we worked with the biggest artists on the planet, like Post Malone, Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Green Day, Justin Bieber, among many other galactic artists,” says Justo. In September, Rock in Rio launches its new São Paulo festival, The Town, which Justo bills as “one of the biggest events on Earth in 2023,” with more than 600,000 people expected to attend.

“This year, we worked with the biggest artists on the planet, like Post Malone, Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Green Day, Justin Bieber, among many other galactic artists,”

Move Concerts, headquartered in Miami, Florida, is Latin America’s largest independent, with offices in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, and Puerto Rico. Move added DC Set Group’s Tiago Maia as the managing director of its Brazilian operation in May 2022.

Move CEO Phil Rodriguez has pondered whether the booming 2022 may have been an anomaly given the pent-up post-Covid demand but recently suggested that 2023 looks encouraging. “We will be announcing various tours for 2023 within the next month, but so far what we have on sale is doing great – we just went up with Jack Johnson dates in Brazil for January, and it is selling stronger than the last time in 2017,” he told IQ.

“We will be announcing various tours for 2023 within the next month, but so far what we have on sale is doing grea,”

Founded in 1979, São Paulo’s DC Set Group has promoted numerous international superstars in Brazil, including Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Luciano Pavarotti, Julio Iglesias, and Rod
Stewart. In 2021, the promoter inked a deal with Move to promote shows and sports events under the Move Concerts Brazil banner.

Under an onslaught of competition, T4F Brazil is perhaps not quite the force it was, but it operates Lollapalooza Brasil and Popload Festival, as well as new arrival Turá, which brought a packed bill of Brazilian artists to Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo this summer. Former T4F promoter Jose Muniz now operates as an independent under his revived Mercury Concerts brand, promoting in Brazil and across the continent.

Mercury’s summer and autumn 2022 shows and tours included Kiss, Måneskin, Guns N’ Roses, Eros Ramazzotti, Helloween, Boyce Avenue, Godsmack, and Hanson. All promoters note the challenges of the market, however, which include the high level of competition, the familiar rising costs of production, and an unfavourable dollar exchange rate, which has a tendency to eat away at margins.

Mercury’s summer and autumn 2022 shows and tours included Kiss, Måneskin, Guns N’ Roses, Eros Ramazzotti, Helloween, Boyce Avenue, Godsmack, and Hanson.

Meanwhile, while it might be easy to regard Brazil as another hungry market for international music, in fact the country’s preferences err strongly towards its own sounds. Sertanejo, a hybrid country music that originally comes from Brazil’s agricultural interior, is Brazil’s most popular
genre.

Its leading promoters include powerful impresario Marcos “Marquinhos” Araújo, who did much to popularise the music and whose BBQ Mix festival attracted 56,000 people in Goiânia in July. However, sertanejo’s popularity is not without controversy – state prosecutors across Brazil are investigating dozens of sertanejo shows over high artist fees paid by local governments.