Vila Isabel won Rio de Janeiro’s 2013 Special Group championship with “A Vila canta o Brasil, celeiro do mundo”.
The enredo celebrated Brazil’s agricultural production and rural landscapes. Unidos de Vila Isabel presented the subject through samba, allegorical floats and coordinated sections, turning themes of cultivation and national identity into a Carnival spectacle. The result gave the school another major championship in Rio’s top competition.
Vila Isabel is headquartered in the Vila Isabel neighborhood, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. Its name can be confused with other schools whose titles also begin with “Unidos,” but Unidos de Vila Isabel is the organization associated with the blue-and-white tradition of that neighborhood. As with other Special Group results, the final ranking came from the official judging of parade categories rather than from a single popular vote.