The origins of Carnival stem from a game from the 15th century in which people would throw water and other liquids at each other. The cordões for a long time defined the musicality of the working-class population of São Paulo, and it was within them that São Paulo samba developed. However, the carnival manifestations of the less affluent classes, with strong Black influence, were practically ignored by the major press of the time, as well as by the public authorities, which sometimes repressed them extensively. In 1914, the Cordão da Barra Funda was created by Dionísio Barbosa, this cordão being an ancestor of . He lived in Rio de Janeiro, where he had contact with military bands and carnival groups that were popular in the 20th century, but the São Paulo carnival cordões displayed peculiar characteristics. At the front of the cordões came the Baliza, a character responsible for performing juggling with batons to open the way for the other members to pass, and who also defended the group's banner. The musical characteristics were the batucada, responsible for the rhythm and performed through percussion and wind instruments, highlighting the bass drum, and the choro, responsible for melodic and harmonic accompaniment; there were also string instruments.
1940s and 1950s The 1940s are marked by the affirmation of Blocos, Cordões and Schools. Other participants gathered in Largo da Banana (where the
Memorial da América Latina currently stands), where between dances, capoeira kicks and card games, a very strong movement of São Paulo samba began to form in that space. In the East Zone of São Paulo, in the old Largo da Penha (where the Church of Penha is located), a movement very similar to that of Largo da Banana also emerged, with the poor Blacks and whites of the region. Even with about four samba schools active in São Paulo, the parades in Rio de Janeiro began to be publicized throughout Brazil, which ended up fostering and attracting the interest of the population of the city of São Paulo, which began to adopt and embrace the parades of the capital. In mid-1967 the then mayor
José Vicente Faria Lima (a native of Rio de Janeiro, born in Vila Isabel and an admirer of samba) regularized the parades on Avenida São João, and in 1968 officially established the festival by signing Law No. 7.100/67, intended to regulate the promotion of Carnival by the Municipal Government of São Paulo, and regulated by Decree No. 7.663/68. This law, together with the creation of the Secretariat of Tourism and Promotion and the activities promoted by it, was part of a context of expansion of the cultural action of the municipality.
1970s In the 1970s "new" schools arrived; the first was
Mocidade Alegre, previously a bloco, presided over by Juarez da Cruz. It passed through all the lower groups until in 1971, newly arrived in Group 1, it won the carnival and became a three-time champion, surprising the old guard of São Paulo samba. With a corsino style of evolution but presenting a completely new technique in the construction of floats and costumes, it was a reference during the years in which it won. The year 1972 was marked by the definitive death of the cordões:
Vai-Vai, , Paulistano da Glória, and Fio de Ouro no longer received support from the municipal government, and thanks to recognition of their greatness in the segment in which they then participated, the greatest champions (Vai-Vai, Camisa Verde e Branco and Fio de Ouro) received an invitation to participate in the main parade of schools. Already in the first year all of them surprised, to the point that Camisa Verde e Branco ended the series of Mocidade Alegre and achieved a four-time championship between 1974 and 1977. From then on what was seen was a dominance of corsina schools. In 1978, with the theme "Na Arca de Noel, Quem Entrou Não Saiu Mais", Vai-Vai won and achieved its first title among the schools. Another victory of the São Paulo Carnival came during the program
Fantástico of
TV Globo: in 1978, Paulistano da Glória won the "1º Concurso Nacional de Sambas-Enredo", with "Epopeia da Glória", composed by Geraldo Filme, perhaps one of the greatest samba composers in the country. In 1979 the contest was again won by São Paulo, this time with representation from Nenê de Vila Matilde with "Treze, Rei, Patuá". The 1970s were also marked by the arrival of Sociedade Rosas de Ouro, a school from the neighborhood of Vila Brasilândia, which in the 1980s would establish itself as a powerhouse. In 1987 the season of brilliant sambas was marked as well as the appearance of associations such as and
Colorado do Brás (which arrived in 1986). The dispute was once again great. Unidos do Peruche appeared with a new style of evolution (the style used today), abandoning the "zigzag" and bringing floats and costumes outside the São Paulo standard thanks to the exchanges that president Walter Guaríglio frequently made with
Rio de Janeiro. came with the daring of Mestre Divino; Mocidade Alegre arrived with the most beautiful samba of the year, sung in the first person, "50 Anos de Comunicação - Moraes Sarmento"; and Vai-Vai and Nenê de Vila Matilde performed strongly and had their sambas acclaimed by the public and accepted by critics. The champion by a narrow margin, however, was Vai-Vai, thanks to errors that cost Camisa Verde e Branco the title, when a float broke in front of the float judging booth and the school faced great difficulties with the sound car. A few days after the final result there was another turnaround; after protests from , which had been hit by a fire in its shed days before the parade, it was then decided that no school would be relegated in that carnival, and
São Paulo thus came to have 16 samba schools in the elite group. But the great highlight of the year was Mocidade, which put on a parade that helped rewrite the history of the association in the São Paulo carnival. Speaking about water, the school from the North Zone got the crowd going and took runner-up after some years of low placements. Leandro de Itaquera generated controversy by bringing staged sex scenes in a cage on the opening float. Camisa Verde was also a highlight with a major parade that drove the grandstands wild. In 2009, Mocidade won with the theme "Da chama da razão ao palco das emoções… sou a máquina, sou a vida… sou o
heart pulsando forte na avenida"; with luxury and determination, the school took the trophy. Vai-Vai came with a current theme, "Mens sana et corpore sano - O Milênio da Superação", which talked about health and hygiene, but ended up in second place. and
Gaviões da Fiel achieved their best results since 2004. But the great highlights of the year were Pérola Negra and Tom Maior, schools that presented impeccable sambas, emotional parades, and visually perfect displays, but ended up in 9th and 11th place respectively. The negative highlight fell on the traditional schools: Camisa did not gain promotion to the Special Group, and Unidos do Peruche ended up in last place and went down. But the greatest shock was the relegation of one of the biggest samba schools of the Brazilian carnival, Nenê de Vila Matilde. The school from the East Zone suffered from internal problems such as fights with the carnival designer, broken floats, reversed wing order, and lack of costumes. Not even the best samba of the year, "60 anos - coração guerreiro, a grande refazenda do samba" (which spoke about the school's 60 years), and the most famous percussion section in São Paulo, which received the highest scores, were enough to keep the school up, and it competed in the 2010 carnival in the access group, for the first time in its history. surprised everyone and put on the best parade in its history, being considered a title contender, but because of low scores in the evolution category, the North Zone school ended up in 8th place with the theme "São Luis do Maranhão - Um Universo de Encantos e Magias". Imperador do Ipiranga and Leandro de Itaquera were relegated. In the Access Group, the favoritism of was confirmed and the school was crowned champion, returning to the Special Group together with Unidos do Peruche. Other schools also stood out, such as and . The great surprise on Sunday night was , which put on a parade without glamour but won over the Sambadrome with an irreverent samba and a daring percussion section, speaking about the
United States. The first day of the São Paulo Special Group samba school parade of 2011 was scheduled to begin at 11:15 p.m. on Friday, March 4, 2011. The 2011 São Paulo Special Group samba school parade took place on March 4 and March 5, 2011, marking the 20th anniversary of the Anhembi Sambadrome in the north zone of the city of São Paulo. Fourteen samba schools took part, with Unidos do Peruche, Tom Maior, Tucuruvi, Rosas de Ouro (the previous year's champion), Mancha Verde, Vai-Vai, and Pérola Negra parading from Friday to Saturday, and Nenê de Vila Matilde, Águia de Ouro, Mocidade Alegre, Vila Maria, X-9 Paulistana, Gaviões da Fiel, and Império de Casa Verde parading from Saturday to Sunday, in that order. Vai-Vai, Pérola Negra, Gaviões da Fiel, and Império de Casa Verde paraded in daylight. The carnival was marked by gigantic floats, luxurious costumes, impactful sambas, themes of all kinds, and great public support, with packed grandstands that gave standing ovations to the samba schools Vai-Vai, Império de Casa Verde, Vila Maria, and Nenê de Vila Matilde. Vai-Vai delivered one of the most emotional parades in Anhembi history, getting the crowd going with its tribute to maestro João Carlos Martins and leaving the Sambadrome to shouts of "it's the champion!". Nenê brought a theme about salt: "Salis Sapientiae - Uma história do mundo". As the first to parade on the second night of Carnival, addressing the discovery of salt, salt in the Bible, salt in cooking, the school's salt wedding anniversary, and ending with a major tribute to Seu Nenê, the founder of the East Zone school. However, very serious problems with the floats, and the switching of wings because of a float that hindered the school's entrance to Anhembi, complicated matters for the school, which was relegated again to the access group. Mocidade presented the theme "Carrossel das Ilusões"; the school was the third to parade at Anhembi. As expected, the association once again innovated in the world of Carnival. It came with one of the most beautiful parades of the year, considered by many the best; however, one of the school's floats could not support the weight and ended up breaking before even entering the avenue, leaving it in 7th place, its worst placement since 2002. Tucuruvi announced that it would pay tribute to northeastern Brazilians in its theme, which earned the association threatening emails from extremists. Although criticized by some for the theme, Tucuruvi presented a beautiful carnival on the avenue, achieving an unprecedented runner-up position, the highest placement ever achieved by the school in carnival, surpassing major associations such as Mocidade Alegre and Rosas de Ouro, having finished only 0.25 points behind champion Vai-Vai, a deserved result for a school until then considered mid-sized. Rosas came with the theme "Abra-te Sésamo: a senha da sorte!", by Jorge Freitas, with the school bringing great luxury in costumes and floats with impeccable finishing, despite having recycled most of the costumes from the previous carnival. It failed in the opening commission by bringing its main choreographer dressed as a pigeon, which in the opinion of the public, critics, and even members of the school was in very poor taste, receiving four 9.75 scores; moreover, there was a lack of choreography among the commission members, who shouted to one another at every moment to indicate the positions they should take, causing the "dancers" to stop singing the samba-enredo, and this counted negatively for evolution, which received a 9.5 and a 9.75. The commission was not the main reason the school finished in 8th place in the Special Group, but more had been expected from the school, which, in the expectations of carnival lovers, was supposed to contend for a second consecutive title. The objective was to bring to the avenue things for which mankind seeks explanation, such as ancient civilizations, faith, and death itself. The school was the second to parade on the second day of the Special Group and the parade was signed by carnival designer Jorge de Freitas, formerly of . At the front of the percussion section, Valeska Reis paraded as queen and
Lívia Andrade as godmother. During the reading of the scores at the Anhembi Convention Palace, there was turmoil and Império ended up not receiving the score of the second judge in the evolution category. Following the rules, the highest score received by the school in the category had to be repeated. In second place, , which finished with the same score (269.1 points) as
Mocidade Alegre, ended up winning on the tiebreak criteria. In fourth place, the great champion of the previous year,
Vai-vai, achieved 268.8 points, and its theme, composed by Zeca do Cavaco, Zé Carlinhos, Ronaldinho FQ, and Dodô Monteiro, spoke about
France. The final result continued with , which told the history of
Ilhabela, in fifth. , which was also affected by turmoil in the release of the scores, spoke about what is fantastic, reached seventh place. In 8th was , followed by – which has already been champion 11 times – and . In the final places were , whose parade highlighted tattooing, and , which spoke about the 100 years of samba. and were relegated to the Access Group. In 2017, the champion school, with that year's theme being a tribute to the African country Zimbabwe, was , which, despite tying with on total points (with 269.7 points), had its victory guaranteed by its better performance in samba-enredo; it was the first victory for the samba school from São Paulo's East Zone. Second place went to Dragões da Real, which brought as its theme a tribute to the northeastern people. Third place went to Vai-Vai, whose theme was a tribute to the "mother" of Candomblé in Brazil. Fourth place went to Império, which made peace the theme of that year's parade. Completing the top schools, Rosas de Ouro finished in fifth place, bringing as its theme togetherness. Although the samba school Águia de Ouro stood out for paying tribute to dogs and protection for all animals and for not using feathers or animal materials, it had a low score of 268.2 points and was relegated to the Access Group. Nenê da Vila Matilde took almost an hour to enter the track because it was wet, and ended up receiving a low score of 268.1 points and was also relegated to the São Paulo Carnival Access Group. in 2020, with the debut of carnival designer
Paulo Barros (carnavalesco). In 2018, Acadêmicos do Tatuapé consolidated its rise and was crowned two-time carnival champion, with the theme in tribute to the state of
Maranhão,
Maranhão: Os Tambores Vão Ecoar Na Terra da Encantaria, with 270 points (a perfect score). The East Zone school gained prominence after a runner-up finish and two titles, whereas in 2010 the school had been in UESP Group I (the third division of the São Paulo Carnival). After a change in management, Acadêmicos do Tatuapé began the path that culminated in these results. That year was also marked by three other schools totaling 270 points, with the tiebreak criterion responsible for defining the order: Acadêmicos do Tatuapé, Mocidade Alegre, Mancha Verde, and Tom Maior. Dragões da Real, with 269.9, completed the group of the top five placed schools, taking part in the Champions' Parade. Relegated were Unidos do Peruche (268.4) and Independente Tricolor (267.7). Águia de Ouro, also with 270, and Colorado do Brás, with 269.9, were the top two schools in Access Group I and returned to the elite group of the São Paulo Carnival. Since the 2019 carnival,
Rede Globo has broadcast the São Paulo carnival score reading only for the state of São Paulo, as well as the highlights package of the two nights of parades, both on
Rede Globo itself; however, for the rest of Brazil (and the world) the highlights package is not shown, nor is the score reading broadcast via Rede Globo, being shown only (for Brazil and the world) by
Globoplay and
G1.
Rede Globo broadcasts the Rio score reading for all of Brazil and, worldwide, the score reading of Rio de Janeiro's special group, both on
Rede Globo and on
G1 and
Globoplay.
Queens of Carnival . == Sports Samba Schools ==