Calvin Harris ends the day on the Rock in Rio World Stage

The choice couldn't have been easy, I imagine, given the number of successes that Scotsman Adam Richard Wiles (no, his real name is not Calvin Harris) had throughout his career.

For the next 1h30 hours, that was the tune: the 42-year-old DJ and producer put on a sequence of hits (“Blame”, “Summer”, “Outside”, “Desire”, “Under Control”), released a funk bubble beat and made the Brazilian public feel as if they had played “The Best Of Calvin Harris” on Spotify. Only better.

During the live audition, lasers, fire, fireworks and smoke came from the stage. From the big screens, colorful projections flashed incessantly, emulating the track of a good club. Also the words “eat, sleep, rave and repeat”.

Harris said little. He limited himself to addressing the audience just to say short phrases like “if you know the words, let me hear them”, “let me see your arms” or “jump, jump”. When the show ended, he left the stage without saying anything.

After more than ten years without performing here, Harris returned to the country in February this year, as an attraction for a pre-Carnival group in São Paulo. He declared at the time: “the thing about Brazil is that they simply know how to have fun”.

Around here, the blonde is so successful that his hit “How Deep Is Your Love” (2015) became “Foi Logo Amor”, a cheesy version by Raphaela Santos.

No wonder, Rock in Rio's commitment was big: for the first time, a DJ closed the day on the festival's biggest stage. Before him, Barão Vermelho passed by paying homage to Cazuza, and the parties of the 2000s by rapper Nelly and the 2010s by Black Eyed Peas.

The Brazilian public, wisely, seemed to intuit that good things could come out of that line-up: tickets for this Sunday were the first to sell out in this edition.

It remained to be seen whether Calvin Harris, used to putting pressure on the dancefloor at his residence in Ushuaïa, in Ibiza, would be able to do the same in front of the drenched public that was on the main stage of Rock in Rio. He didn't do badly.

Proof was the public's crazy reaction during the smash hits “We Found Love”, This Is What You Came For” and “Where Have You Ben”, recorded in partnership with pop diva Rihanna, and in “One Kiss”, with Dua Lipa.

There were those who were suspicious of the feat: in addition to the novelty of the thing, the Scotsman, let's agree, is not the most communicative when compared to DJs like Alok, who will also be on the main stage of this edition. And look, even Alok isn't the most excited on stage.

The Brazilian public didn't care. I wanted to hear the music, and I could do that even with my back to the DJ if I wanted.

Harris didn't need to say anything, he just let his choruses play. And he kept raising his hands in the air, shaking his body and moving his neck up and down: the perfect formula for getting a close-up in Ibiza.