Rock in Rio's sign language pumps up Brazil's deaf audience

Tens of thousands of Brazilians gathered at Rio de Janeiro’s mega-festival Rock in Rio on Friday, with many staking out spots of artificial grass all day to hear the headliner, Katy Perry. As her music keyed up, the enormous screens around the stage showed someone else in their bottom corners — a sign language interpreter.

The red-haired woman — with a chunky chain belt and a gem between her eyebrows — snapped her fingers and swayed, then pumped her arms as the beat gathered force.

“It seems like I’m on stage with her, in front of everyone,” the interpreter, Laísa Martins, told the Associated Press afterward. And as Katy Perry belted out her first verse, Martins started signing.

Rock in Rio is featuring sign language interpreters on its big screens for the first time in its 40-year history. It’s one of Latin America’s biggest festivals, drawing 100,000 people a day over seven days, and Sunday is its last day.

Inside a container backstage, interpreters sign in front of a green screen, with their images appearing above the stage to ensure deaf people across the thronging crowd can follow. Organizers also invite dozens of deaf people and their companions into a VIP area, right by the stage and close enough to speakers to feel the music pulsing through their bodies.

Interpreters have started popping up at festivals and concerts across Brazil in recent years. Their sudden ubiquity stems from Brazil’s ambitious 2015 inclusion law that sought to put the country at the global forefront of accessibility and, among other things, established that people with disabilities have the right to access cultural events while guaranteeing organizers provide means of doing so.

Some interpreters have drawn the spotlight themselves with their flair and flashy dress, gaining thousands of social media followers. Demand for them is surging so much that many start working before even finishing their education, said Lenildo Souza, president of the nationwide federation of sign language interpreters’ associations.

In Brazil, 2.3 million people are partially or completely deaf, according to the national statistics institute. But fewer than two-thirds of those who are completely deaf know how to use Brazilian sign language, and far less among those with some hearing. That’s because people opt for cochlear implants, learn only lip-reading, or go deaf later in life, said Souza.

As such, subtitles could be more effective at transmitting lyrics; Colombian singer Karol G sang so quickly at times Friday night that some words were lost on Amorim, who isn’t fluent in Spanish. But Amorim said interpreters convey more than just lyrics of songs, which they study intensively ahead of the show. They dance to the rhythm and pull faces to transmit the music’s energy and emotion — be it euphoria, rage, mystery or sensuality. That pumps up the crowd, deaf and hearing people alike.

“We express the whole idea of the song with our expressions, with our body. We want to express the entire musical context and use literally our entire body,” said Amorim, whose older sister is deaf. “Our feet are cut off there (on the screen), but during samba songs, we’re dancing samba. It’s just like that.”

Rock in Rio is already one of the most accessible festivals for deaf people in the world, said Thiago Amaral, its coordinator of plurality. Still, his team is working to innovate, and future editions could include vibrating platforms or a product similar to the vibrating vests they tested last year, he said. This year was also the first that Rock in Rio offered audio description earpieces for those with limited vision.

One of the deaf people at Rock in Rio on Friday was Henrique Miranda Martins, 24. His whole family is big into music, especially samba — his uncles play the four-string cavaquinho and pandeiro, a handheld frame drum — and he was always around it growing up. But Martins can hear little from his right ear and nothing from his left, so could never fully connect or participate.

Last year, he went to his first-ever concert with sign language interpreters, Coldplay, and it became his favorite band — even before its single whose official video features people signing. Then Martins went to the Lollapalooza festival in Sao Paulo. And last week he traveled from Sao Paulo to party with his parents at Rock in Rio.

He was most hyped to see Brazilian singer Iza on Friday, and waited to enter the special section by the stage. Iza started playing, just off to his left, but he faced the opposite direction, watching her on the screen with an interpreter in its corner. He danced and signed along with the interpreter, often in synchrony.

“I can follow the interpreter and I’m very happy to be able to feel the music and live this experience,” Martins said, speaking through an interpreter. “For deaf people, it’s very important. We can’t be outside this here. We need to be inside, with accessibility, together with everyone participating in everything. I’m very happy.”

Rock in Rio’s camera scanning the crowd found Martins vibing and locked in. For a few seconds, he was up on the big screen for everyone to see, smiling wide with his head thrown back and shaking both hands in the air — the sign for applause.

Henrique Miranda da Silva Martins, 24, who is deaf, reacts during a performance at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Sign language interpreter, top right, translates on a big screen during a performance by Brazilian singer Kayblack at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Diogo Soares Abdulmassih, 48, who is deaf people, watches Brazilian singer Zeca Baleiro performs at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Katy Perry performs during the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Colombian singer Karol G performs during the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Henrique Miranda da Silva Martins, 24, who is deaf, reacts during a performance at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Sign language interpreter Adriano Romin, bottom left, translates on a big screen during a performance by Brazilian singer Pedro Sampaio at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Diogo Soares Abdulmassih, 48, who is deaf, watches Brazilian singer Zeca Baleiro perform at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Interpreter Adriana Lopes speaks sign language in a studio inside a shipping container for a performance by Brazilian singer Pedro Sampaio at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Interpreter Adriano Romin speaks sign language in a studio inside a shipping container for a performance by Brazilian singer Pedro Sampaio at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched new strikes in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv that hit high-rise apartment buildings, leaving at least 21 wounded in a second consecutive nighttime attack, authorities said.

The bombs fell Saturday night on the district of Shevchenkivsky, north of the center of Kharkiv, which is the second-largest Ukrainian city, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. Residential buildings sustained varying degrees of damage, including 16- and nine-story buildings, he added. Kharkiv's city council said that 18 buildings were damaged.

The wounded included an 8-year-old child, according to Syniehubov and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov. Terekhov said that 60 residents were evacuated from one of the buildings, a high-rise that was hit directly.

Kharkiv has been a frequent target of Russian attacks since Moscow launched its all-out invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.

The attack came after another late Friday that wounded 15 people, including children ages 10 and 12, when Russian airstrikes hit three Kharkiv neighborhoods, Terekhov said.

Ukrainian officials said that KAB-type aerial glide bombs — a retrofitted Soviet weapon that has for months laid waste to eastern Ukraine — were used in both attacks.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strike and urged Kyiv’s Western allies to send more weapons to help it “protect lives and ensure safety.”

“Ukraine needs full long-range capabilities, and we are working to convince our partners of this,” Zelenskyy said on X, as he prepared to kick off a busy week in the United States shoring up support for Kyiv in the war.

And Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Sunday that Kyiv was in talks with partners in Europe to secure Swedish-made Gripen and European Eurofighter Typhoon jets. Umerov said that commitments were already in place for deliveries of U.S.-made F-16s and French Mirages.

Russia also launched 80 Shahed drones and two missiles at Ukraine overnight into Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said. Ukrainian air defense shot down 71 drones, and another six were lost on location because of electronic warfare countermeasures, the statement said.

Farther south, a 12-year-old girl and a woman died after a Russian drone struck a passenger car in the city of Nikopol, local Gov. Serhii Lysak reported. Two others, including a 4-year-old child, suffered wounds.

A Russian airstrike on Saturday morning also struck private homes in the eastern city of Sloviansk, trapping a woman under rubble and also wounding two of her neighbors, regional prosecutors reported. Sloviansk, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, has been a key target for Russian forces as they continue their grinding push westwards aimed at capturing the entirety of the country’s industrial east.

In southern Ukraine, a Russian drone strike on Sunday morning wounded two civilians in the city of Kherson, regional authorities said. Hours later, local police reported that Russian attacks wounded at least four more people elsewhere in the Kherson province.

Other Russian drone attacks Sunday damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s central Poltava region and the northern city of Shostka, local officials reported.

Shostka lies in the Sumy region, across the border from Russia's Kursk province — the target of a startling Ukrainian military incursion launched last month. Weeks into the incursion, Zelenskyy said that the aim is to create a buffer zone to prevent further Russian cross-border strikes that have for months wreaked havoc in Sumy.

Around 10,000 residents have left the nearby town of Hlukhiv because of intensified Russian shelling, around a third of its prewar population, the local military administration said Sunday in a Facebook update.

According to the post, almost 70% of the town’s children have left, following the regional government’s calls to evacuate parts of the Sumy region nearest the Russian border. Hlukhiv lies less than 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Russian territory, and about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Shostka.

Also on Sunday, Ukrainian shelling wounded 10 people in Russia’s southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, according to its Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. Among them were a village head and members of a local self-defense force, Gladkov said.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian servicemen of Liut brigade camouflage D-30 artillery cannon after firing towards Russian position near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian serviceman of Liut brigade aims his D-30 artillery cannon during firing towards Russian positions near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian serviceman of Liut brigade fires by his D-30 artillery cannon towards Russian position near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian serviceman of Liut brigade aims his D-30 artillery cannon during firing towards Russian positions near Toretsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Emergency services workers move rubble after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Kharkiv Regional Military Administration via AP)

A firefighter extinguishes a burning vehicle after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Kharkiv Regional Military Administration via AP)

Emergency services workers move rubble after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Kharkiv Regional Military Administration via AP)

Firefighters take a break after working at the scene after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Kharkiv Regional Military Administration via AP)

Emergency services workers look to move rubble and find injured after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Kharkiv Regional Military Administration via AP)

Emergency services workers move rubble after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Kharkiv Regional Military Administration via AP)

A man holds a puppy near damaged cars after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Ukrainian National Police via AP)

A light is shone on a damaged car after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Ukrainian National Police via AP)

People mill around damaged cars and debris after a Russian strike on a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine early Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Ukrainian National Police via AP)