Credit, Reproduction Instagram/@zezedicamargo
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- author, Essay
- To roll, BBC News Brazil
Singer Zezé Di Camargo asked SBT to cancel the broadcast of its Christmas special after publicly criticizing the presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and members of the government at the launch of SBT News, the channel’s new news program.
The episode, which began as an individual reaction from an artist aligned with Bolsonarism, quickly transformed into a national debate about media, power, political polarization and the symbolic use of Silvio Santos’ legacy.
The special “Christmas is Love with Zezé Di Camargo” was scheduled to air on the 17th, but was removed from the schedule after the singer posted a video on social media harshly criticizing the channel.
In his speech, Zezé declared that SBT would “prostitute itself” by receiving Lula and the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes, at an institutional event to launch the new newspaper.
Shortly after, SBT informed, in a statement, that it had decided not to air the special after internal evaluations and would later announce which attraction will occupy the time slot.
In the video, Zezé said he had “nothing against anyone” but said what he saw at the event did not represent his thoughts or, he said, those of much of Brazil.
Speaking directly about Silvio Santos’ daughters, the singer suggested that they took different positions from their father and said that “a son who does not honor his father and mother does not exist.”
He later publicly demanded that his special be taken off the air, saying it was inconsistent to associate his name with a network that he claimed had changed its political position.
Political differences
The launch of SBT News, carried out last Friday, brought together authorities from different political camps and was marked by an institutional and cordial tone.
Footage from the event showed Lula sharing laughs and greetings with political opponents, such as São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas.
The meeting was interpreted by critics as a symbolic gesture of rapprochement between the SBT and the current government.
Zezé Di Camargo, who has publicly expressed his support for Bolsonarism for years, did not mention Lula or Moraes by name in his video, but their political identity is known.
In October, during a show in Santa Catarina, the singer defended amnesty for those convicted of the January 8 coups. On that occasion, he spoke to an audience that showed explicit support for former President Jair Bolsonaro, currently in prison for leading a coup plot.
The repercussions reached the political domain. First lady Janja Lula da Silva criticized the singer’s statements and declared that Zezé was “misogynistic” and “macho” by using the term “prostitution” to refer to the decisions made by the daughters of Silvio Santos, now head of the channel.
According to Janja, the singer’s speech reflects a lack of respect for the female presence in spaces of power. In a social media post, she said accusing Silvio’s daughters of “prostitute” SBT by inviting authorities to an institutional event fuels hate speech and reveals bias against women in command positions.
In the Bolsonarist camp, the reaction was more ambiguous. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, PL pre-candidate for the presidential election, criticized Zezé Di Camargo’s use of the word “prostitute”, while saying he understood the singer’s indignation.
In an interview, Flávio said that the expression was exaggerated, especially since it concerned Silvio Santos’ daughters, and argued that political differences should not be dealt with aggressively.
According to him, the singer should apologize for the way he expressed himself.
The legacy of Silvio Santos
During his criticism, Zezé Di Camargo suggested that SBT’s current direction would move away from the values and positions that, according to him, marked the trajectory of the station’s founder.
But according to a 2021 interview with BBC News Brasil by journalist and biographer Mauricio Stycer, Silvio Santos always considered politics as a tool to secure his business, and not as a cause to defend.
Over the decades, he has maintained close relationships with governments of different stripes, from military dictatorships to presidents elected after redemocratization.
It was under the military regime that Silvio obtained the basic authorizations to operate television channels in several capitals, which allowed the creation of SBT in 1981.
The presenter publicly expressed his gratitude to General João Figueiredo, the last president of the dictatorship, and the channel broadcast for years the program “President’s Week”, which praised the activities of the head of the Executive.
Later, his pragmatic relationship with power came to include a direct foray into electoral politics.
In 1989, Silvio Santos attempted to run for president of the Republic, in a last-minute effort that led to political and business conflicts.
Although he never held public office, the anchor maintained close relationships with civilian and military presidents and established himself as a competitive name in polls.
The candidacy ended up being blocked by legal and political obstacles days before the election, but the episode highlighted that Silvio viewed politics less as an ideological field than as a strategic space, according to the biography written by Stycer.
In the civil governments that followed, Silvio maintained cordial relations with José Sarney, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula and Dilma Rousseff, who even appeared in laudatory statements in a documentary about his life.
In 2010, at the height of the Banco Panamericano crisis, Silvio met with Lula to discuss alternatives that would avoid the liquidation of the institution, which ended up being saved by the Credit Guarantee Fund before being sold.
Proximity to power has also intensified under the governments of Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro. Temer participated in SBT programs while seeking support for pension reform, and the channel aired vignettes arguing the need for the measure.
With Bolsonaro, the relationship was even more explicit: shortly after his election, the then president went live to the Telethon and visited Silvio at his home in São Paulo. In 2020, Bolsonaro recreated the Ministry of Communications and appointed Fábio Faria, the son-in-law of Silvio Santos, to the post.
For Stycer, this proximity has always been linked to commercial interests and the group’s survival in the competitive communications market.
Silvio never presented himself as a political activist, nor did he maintain a consistent ideological line over time. His main goal was to protect and grow his business.
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