The Golden Return of Charm: How Baile de Madureira Became a Global Phenomenon in the 2020s

If you think the 2020s were all about TikTok and the pandemic, you should read the story that broke in The New York Times in January 2025: the Baile Charme do Viaduto de Madureira became the leading ambassador of Black Brazilian culture to the world. While we debated algorithms and working from home, a silent revolution was unfolding beneath the Negrão de Lima viaduct, every Saturday since 1990.

The charm never completely disappeared. But in the last decade, there's been a revival that blends nostalgia, resilience, and a new generation that has discovered in passinhos a way to connect musically with their parents and grandparents.

The Perfect Accident That Created a Genre

The story begins on March 8, 1980, when DJ Corello (Marco Aurélio Ferreira) was playing at the Mackenzie club in Méier (and anyone from Méier hasn't been fooled for a long time). It was late at night, disco music was tiring the crowd, and Corello decided to experiment. He played a slower, more melodic R&B, which the foreigners called " urban contemporary ." And he uttered the phrase that would change everything: "It's time for the charminho, fuck your body very slowly."

The term stuck right away. People started saying, "I'm going for the charminho," "There's going to be charm today." Corello had christened not just a musical style, but a cultural movement that combined Philadelphia soul and R&B with the mellowness of Rio.

It was a time of dictatorship, and black American music functioned as a subtle form of cultural resistance. Charming dances became venues where black and peripheral youth could build their own identity away from the military's gaze.

The Sound DNA of a Resistance

The charm was born from an almost perfect sonic triangulation: it took Philadelphia soul (with those awesome arrangements), mixed it with the contemporary R&B that was emerging in the US in the 80s, and seasoned it all with new jack swing, the style that producer Teddy Riley created by fusing hip hop with R&B.

"The charme movement was a genuine Carioca invention," as stated in the decree that transformed charme into the city's intangible heritage in 2013. It was foreign music filtered through the Carioca ear, which created a dance that allowed for both sensuality and elegance, both individual and collective.

The "charmeiros" developed an entire body language: the social steps that everyone danced together, creating collective and spontaneous choreographies. Parade Step, Hand in Hair Step, Sambinha Step, each movement had a name and a story.

Migration to the Viaduct

The charm circulated through various points in the North Zone during the 80s and early 90s: Vera Cruz (Abolição), Mackenzie (Méier), Disco Voador (Marechal Hermes). But it was in 1990 that it found its definitive home.

Celso and César Athayde, cultural producers who frequented DJ Corello 's dances, had a practical idea: to hold a baile charme in Madureira, closer to home. Together with their friends Leno, Pedro, Edinho, and Xandoca, who already organized the Pagodão de Madureira, they created "Charm na Rua" in March 1993.

The choice of location was strategic: beneath the Negrão de Lima Viaduct, known as the Madureira Viaduct, the largest viaduct in the country when it opened in 1958. There, no one would complain about the noise, there was no need to pay rent, and there was space for everyone.

The Renaissance in the 2020s

If the 90s and 2000s were the golden age of baile charme (with audiences of up to 5,000 people and international artists like Sybil, Curtis Hairston, and Glen Jones performing), in the 2010s, things slowed down. It seemed like the movement might turn into nostalgia.

But something changed radically in the 2020s. And it wasn't just the pandemic that forced everyone to rethink their socializing. It was a convergence of factors that created the current charm moment:

The TikTok Generation Discovered Steps

Geovana Cruz, 20, has gone viral with her charming TikTok videos, racking up thousands of views. "It's addictive. The more you dance, the more you want to keep going," she told The New York Times in the article linked at the beginning.

The new generation doesn't see charme as "old" music, but as living culture. Larissa Rodrigues Martins, a 25-year-old teacher, sums it up: "It's a place where we share and learn not just about dance moves, but about life."

The Professionalization of the Movement

Marcus Azevedo, who started attending dances at age 12, ended up becoming a major player in this new phase. At 46, he is a choreographer, cultural producer, and director of Dança Charme & Cia.

In 2020, the Rio de Janeiro Dance Professionals Union officially recognized charme dance as a professional category, allowing dancers to formalize their dance careers and even creating a content and reference booklet. Marcus created the Originals do Charme, the first professional charme dance company, made up of dancers between 40 and 60 years old (the "cascudos" ) who lived through the golden age.

Recognition as Heritage

In 2013, Baile Charme was declared an intangible cultural heritage site of the city of Rio. In 2019, it became a state intangible cultural heritage site. In 2024, the viaduct was transformed into a "living museum" through the Urban Art Zone Project (ZAU), with graffiti depicting the history of Black Brazilian music.

Charm has expanded beyond Rio's borders. São Paulo holds regular classes in the Anhangabaú Valley. Sorocaba held the "Baile Charm – Black Culture in Motion" in 2025. Even Pelotas, in Rio Grande do Sul, has developed its own charm scene.

The Soundtrack of Resistance

The charm of the 2020s maintains its musical roots, but has incorporated new elements. DJ Michell, a Viaduto resident since 1994, explains: "Today, the charm is more Brazilian. This is part of our evolution." He continues to play classics like Cassidy's "Hotel" and Toni Braxton's "He Wasn't Man Enough," but mixes it up with Os Garotin, a modern R&B trio that has become a sensation.

The musical classification that charmeiros use is key: "flashbacks" are music up to the mid-80s, "midbacks" are the style of the 90s, and "new jack swing" encompasses the hip hop/R&B fusion that dominated the late 80s and early 90s.

Artists like Luther Vandross , Whitney Houston , Bobby Brown , Babyface , SOS Band , Maze , and Alexander O'Neal form the canon of charm. But the new generation also brought neo soul, contemporary R&B, and even Brazilian artists who dialogue with these references.

The movement evolved into genres like funk melody, a fusion of funk carioca with the romanticism of charm. Artists like Márcio and Goró, icons of the 90s and Madureira natives, were instrumental in giving voice to this aesthetic, with hits like "A Distância" (which rocked my heart during the first heartbreaks of my pre-teen years), reinforcing that the only difference between these musical universes, as Marquinhos and Dolores rightly said back in 1994, is that "one walks handsome and the other elegant."

The Global Phenomenon

When The New York Times dedicated an entire article to the Baile Charme de Madureira, it marked the international culmination of a process that transformed a suburban party into a global cultural phenomenon. Marcelo Freixo, current president of Embratur, emphasized in the article the importance of this foreign exposure: "We are showing the world the beauty and diversity of our cultural expressions."

The viaduct now welcomes visitors from around the world. Saturday morning charm classes bring together children, teenagers, and men and women in their 50s and 60s. In the evening, the ball attracts up to 5,000 people per edition.

The Sound That Never Stops

Even when everything accelerates, even when technologies change, even when society tries to make us invisible, music always finds a way to make us dance. The Baile Charme at the Madureira Viaduct is proof that when you create a space where 5,000 people have gathered every Saturday for 35 years to dance, you're not just throwing a party. You're starting a revolution.

And I think that after this, I will feel obliged to delve into the history of the Black Rio Movement, because, without it, Charme might not exist...