Karla Jayne Thomas was crowned Rainha da Bateria for the London School of Samba at Vox in Vauxhall on Friday the 15th of July
The exiting Rainha da Bateria Orquidea Felgueiras, presented Karla with her winning sash and tiara. You can see who has been Rainha in previous years in our image gallery.
The runner up was Yazzmin Newell. The other contestants were Sinead Canning, Isabelle Zabou, and Claire Felstead.
The competition was judged by Eddy Souza, Marcelo Oliveira, Rosa Webb & Fred Turuka who all looked for a number of defined key features such as dance style, sense of rhythm, interaction with audience and bateria, stage presence and harmonia. LSS members also got to cast their votes.
The position of Rainha da Bateria is one of the most important posts for any Escola da Samba. The World Samba Organisation’s definition is “A person who dances samba very well who accompanies the percussion or “bateria” unit of a samba school. This person is usually a woman and is also chosen for their physical beauty.” She leads out the Bateria at key events and represents the schools dancers and bateria.