Beija-Flor – caught by the team of RioTur photographers – scored a perfect 270 points to wins its 15th Rio carnival title, and its first since 2018, with the samba ‘Laíla de Todos os Santos, Laíla de todos os sambas’, that celebrated its late carnival director, Luiz Fernando Ribeiro do Carmo, Laíla, who died in June 2021 from complications of Covid-19.

Laíla was responsible for a sequence of the school’s carnival championships between 1998 and 2018, winning in 1998, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015 and 2018.

Running Beija-Flor close were Grande Rio in second with 269.9 points and Imperatriz, winner of Globo’s Estandarte de Ouro, with 269.8 points. The relegated school is Unidos de Padre Miguel with 266.8 points.