The September 7th, The Sunset stage at Rock in Rio 2026, in the Olympic Park of Rio de Janeiro, will be the stage for one of the most curious musical encounters of the new edition of the festival: Pericles will present “Péricles Sings Motown”, a special project dedicated to the great season of American soul music and the historic Detroit record label.
For an artist identified above all with the samba and the pagode, tackling the Motown repertoire means entering one of the most important territories of 20th-century popular music. The concert will offer new interpretations of songs associated with some of the absolute protagonists of African-American music, including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations.
On stage, Péricles will be accompanied by the maestro Mauricio Piassarollo, in a show designed to enhance both the original melodies and the particular interpretative sensitivity of the Brazilian artist.
From the outskirts of São Paulo to national success
Péricles, at the registry office Péricles Aparecido Fonseca de Faria, is one of the best-known voices in contemporary Brazilian popular music. Her career is closely linked to samba and pagode, genres in which she has built, over the decades, an artistic identity recognizable for her powerful voice, emotional interpretation, and direct connection with the audience.
His consecration came above all through the Exaltasamba, a key group in the history of Brazilian pagoda. Péricles was one of its leading figures, contributing to a long period of success that took the genre from the rodas de samba and popular circuits to the great national stages.
After her experience with the group, the artist embarked on a successful solo career, consolidating her position among the great names of Brazilian samba. Albums, tours, and collaborations have progressively expanded her audience, while her repertoire has continued to shift between romanticism, samba, and pagode.
It is precisely this experience gained in samba that makes it particularly interesting “Péricles Sings Motown”. It’s not just about re-proposing famous songs, but reinterpreting them through the voice and musical culture of a Brazilian artist deeply rooted in the tradition of black music.
Motown, the hit factory
To understand the meaning of the project it is necessary to go back to the Detroit in the 1950s. In 1959 Berry Gordy Jr. he founded the record company that would become famous under the name of Motown, destined to radically transform the relationship between African-American music and the US record market.
Detroit was then one of the capitals of the American automotive industry. In this industrial and urban environment, a label was born that Gordy conceived with an almost entrepreneurial mindset: to develop artists, musicians, songwriters, and producers capable of creating songs accessible to a very wide audience.
The result was extraordinary.
During the 1960s, Motown became a veritable hit factory, launching or contributing to the consecration of artists destined to enter the history of music. The Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Jackson 5 are just some of the names associated with his extraordinary season.
The label’s strength also lay in its unique working method. Authors, arrangers, producers, and musicians collaborated closely, creating a recognizable sound that would become known worldwide as “Motown Sound”.
The sound that transcended racial barriers
Motown’s revolution wasn’t just musical. In the 1960s, a time when segregation and racial tensions were still deeply rooted in the United States, the label successfully brought African-American artists to the pop charts and onto mainstream radio.
His productions combined soul, rhythm and blues, pop and gospel, creating a musical language capable of transcending the boundaries of the audience traditionally associated with black music.
Motown songs thus became part of American pop culture and subsequently conquered international audiences.
Among the most important artists there is Stevie Wonder, who joined the label’s catalog at a very young age and became one of the most influential musicians in music history. His artistic evolution would lead Motown into increasingly sophisticated territories, combining soul, pop, funk, and jazz.
Marvin Gaye, instead, represented one of the label’s most profound transformations. From a successful performer, he gradually became an artist capable of addressing social, political, and personal issues. His work helped demonstrate that soul music could be simultaneously popular, sophisticated, and committed.
THE Temptations, with their vocal harmonies, choreography and an impressive series of hits, represented one of the greatest expressions of Motown vocal soul.
From Detroit to Rio de Janeiro
It is precisely this musical heritage that Péricles will bring to the Sunset Stage. The operation also takes on a particular significance in the Brazilian context, where samba, pagode, soul, funk and other genres of international black music have dialogued for decades.
The project therefore creates a connection between two apparently distant worlds but united by the same cultural root: the centrality of African-American and Afro-Brazilian music in the construction of contemporary popular culture.
Péricles’ pagode and Motown soul belong to different traditions, but they share fundamental elements: the role of the voice, the importance of rhythm, the strength of harmonies, and a music born from the experience of black communities and subsequently become universal heritage.
The choice of the Rock in Rio As the setting for this encounter, it further amplifies the significance of the initiative. The festival, founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1985, has become one of the leading international music platforms over the years, showcasing extremely diverse artists and genres.
The September 7thSo, the Sunset audience won’t just be attending a Péricles concert. They’ll be invited to rediscover, through a Brazilian voice, some of the most important pages in Motown’s history.
“Péricles Sings Motown” It promises to be a musical journey between Detroit and Rio de Janeiro, between soul and pagodas, between the traditions of black American and Brazilian music. A dialogue between two cultures that, despite developing thousands of miles apart, have both demonstrated how rhythm can become identity, cultural expression, and a universal language.