Award of Excellence

"Favela Funk"

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - MAY, 2014: Funk dancers during a charme party under a bridge in the favela of Madureira in Northern Rio. Any number of influences can be found in Brazil’s funk music, a diverse and dynamic genre which has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon, booming far from the favelas, where the carioca funk was born. But for those inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro who are not part of the bourgeoisie and whose reality unfolds in the adjacent favelas, funk signifies not only a music genre, but also a dance, a beat and a way of talking about hardship. In no other music genre is there such an aggressive assertion of sexuality, masculinity, oppression, poverty and law-defying uprising. This is then counter-balanced by a humbling presence of lyrics focusing on black pride, dignity in the face of injustice.