Rio favela musicians play to cope with quarantine

Musicians living in a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro sought to banish the coronavirus blues on Friday night by staging a samba concert for their neighbours. Members of the "Tempero de Criola" band played samba and other traditional Brazilian music, sitting on the terrace of an apartment building in the Turano favela.

Other residents of the favela watched from their windows or balconies, or saw the performance on their television screens via the internet. Tiago de Almeida, a musician and producer who lives in the slum, said the aim was to help residents get through the stress and the strain of the coronavirus crisis. It was the latest in a series of informal concerts that the musicians have staged during the course of the pandemic. Residents welcomed the initiative.

"It has become an emotional escape for a lot of people", said Jacqueline de Jesus, whose family danced to the music as they watched the performance from inside their apartment.

Brazil on Friday said it had more than one million cases of COVID-19, second only to the United States. It has reported almost 50,000 deaths.