Rei Da Folia

2018 – Present – Nathan Gapomo

(Photo: ) tantse.co.uk

2017 – 2018 Lucy Laetitia

(Photo: Brian Guttridge)

2014 – 2015 Kanika Findley-Chin

(Photo: Wayne Campbell)

2011 – 2012 Karla-Jayne Thomas

(Photo: M Johns)

2008 – 2009 Ella Peck

(Photo: LSS Archive)

2005 – 2006 Aparacida Morrison

(Photo: Rob Cummins)

2002 – 2003 Laura Xavier

(Photo: Paul Marwood)

1999 – 2000 Luciana de Oliveira

The first LSS Rainha da Bateria competition was held in 1998 in Waterloo.

It is usually held in the second half of July in time for the August Notting Hill Carnival Parade.

2014 – Carlinhos De Salguiro

(Photo: ) Wayne Campbell

The Performance Bateria are the group of drummers who are chosen (by invite only) to perform at most of live audience events our organisation encounters as the London School of Samba (LSS).

This group is an invite only group. At the LSS we generally look towards recruiting from developing guests and members attending our open workshops on Sundays at Waterloo Action Centre (WAC) or people we've encountered elsewhere in the world playing samba and have relocated to London. But if you are new to the LSS but have some previous samba experience you'd like to join the gigging bateria, simply come and meet us at WAC on a Sunday and either let a bateria director or the mestre de bateria know you're interested and we'll have a look at your skills there and your community spirit and let you know when we reach a decision.

Either before or after you see us at WAC, email us you intention at lssbateria@gmail.com

In the performance bateria known as the 'gigging bateria' you will be expected to learn more about swing, groove,bossas (breaks) and their relation to various LSS acoustic sets, to learn sambas from the school of past and present as well as some chosen samba from schools from Brazil (in Portuguese) and choreography to aid the performance (something we pride ourselves on). In addition to this we encourage you to increase you general samba knowledge, keep up to date with current samba news and learn about samba's history (although that will be taught school wide) and learn portuguese (even if it's only a little bit).

If you're not initially selected it generally because we feel you have to work on technique, memory or something else there are still opportunities to perform with the samba school in front of a live audience. We hold 3 or 4 performances a year where we invite any member of the samba school to join us for these public performances at events such as the 'London Marathon' or the 'Vitality 10k' and is a great way to bring everyone in the school and other samba friends together. The aim is for each individual to be able to handle the pace of gigging bateria rehearsals and not feel overwhelmed or muddy the collective sound of the bateria. 

From no samba experience to fully fledged gigging bateria percussionist may take time, it may not, so a 'no' from entry to the group from us is not personal or a complete rejection, it's simply stating that for some reason at this time either from us, yourself or circumstances like covid numbers, that it's just not possible at this moment in time.

But don't give up, keep trying. You'll still get to play at school wide gigs and we'll eagerly await the time when the circumstances are right to welcome you in our gigging crew.