GPWeek music festival arrives in São Paulo for the first time, celebrating 50 years of Formula 1 in the country. The event reinforced the connection between motorsports and music and moved the capital, bringing big names in music such as Twenty One Pilots and The Killers to the stage of Allianz Parque.
Last weekend (12th and 13th), São Paulo hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix, at the Interlagos Circuit. However, the weekend was not restricted to the race, a music festival after the sporting event was created and provided by GP Brazil itself, making the capital even more crowded. On Saturday, the bands The Killers, Twenty One Pilots, Hot Chip, The Band Camino, and Fresno took to the stage, being responsible for selling out 50,000 tickets.
The expectation for the two main international performances was huge. The last time that Brazilian fans watched the two bands here in the country was in 2018 and 2019. The big HeadLiner of the night was the American group The Killers, but the ones who stole the spotlight were the boys Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, from Twenty One Pilots. They put on a breathtaking show for the crowd and certainly made history both in the event and in their career.
Twenty One Pilots
The presentation can be translated into just two words: Bold and Engaging. The American duo, who had already performed in São Paulo at Lollapalooza in 2016 and 2019, delivered – without a doubt – the best show of the night, in a fierce dispute with the other main international attraction.
Excited from start to finish, we had the complete package of what Twenty One Pilots’ performance is. The stunts of Tyler Joseph, who scaled the structure of the house mix during “Car Radio”, Josh Dun smashing the drums and playing over the crow and the song “Mulberry Street”, complete with choreographed cellphone flashlights and the trumpeter of the band making a beautiful tribute to Brazil, playing the solo of “Aquarela do Brasil”, a song from Ary Barroso.
The boys came down from the stage several times to get closer to the audience and tried to speak in Portuguese during the entire show. At the end of the presentation, Tyler said: “Esse é nosso último show durante um bom tempo” (this is our last show for a while), confirming that the concert in Brazil was probably the last of the tour, being the best way to end that cycle.
The band finished the night with “Heatness” and “Tress”, with the rain of shredded paper and explosion of smoke. Cheered by the crowd, the vocalist thanked everyone for coming and promised to come back soon.
The Killers
At 9:40 pm, Brandon Flowers and his band took the stage to close the night on a high note. The presentation brought the classics of The Killers and was very fun. The members were relaxed and the vocalist risked his Portuguese right at the beginning when he asked: “Vocês se esqueceram da gente?” (did you forget us already?), hearing a resounding “no”.
Unfortunately, the group came to Brazil – once again – without one member of the original group. In the previous visit, at Lollapalooza 2018, they came without the guitarist Dave Keuning and, at this time, they also did not have the bassist Mark Stoermer.
But the lack of a member did not prevent the band from delivering a great show. The audience went wild with the band’s greatest hits, such as “Somebody Told Me”, “Human”, and “Mr. Brightside”, the latter being one of the most emotional moments of the show.
The show’s highlight was when, during one of the songs, a fan named Raphael – who was in the audience – asked to come up and play the drums. Brandon invited him to the stage and he rocked playing the classic “For Reasons Unknown” and “Runaway” with the rest of the band, being applauded by the crowd that filled the stadium. Raphael is a surgeon and wore a t-shirt that said: “não posso, estou de plantão” (I can’t, I’m on duty).
Overall, the concert was great, lively, and left nothing to be desired. The band delivered their classic performance, which Brazilian fans were missing so much. Brandon also reached the highest and most characteristic notes of The Killers quickly while live.
This was the first edition of GPWeek, an event with everything to go well and be on the top of the list of festivals in São Paulo in the upcoming years!
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The article above was edited by Julia Bonin.
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