Tobias Sammet paid tribute to Andre Matos Avantasia 's show in Brazil, held in São Paulo last Saturday, the 29th. The German musician was a personal friend and artistic partner of the Brazilian vocalist, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 47.
In the final stretch of the show, before the song "No Return," recorded with Andre Matos on the album The Metal Opera Part II , Tobias received a t-shirt with Andre Matos's photo from the audience, which he promptly accepted and showed to the crowd, prompting applause and a chorus of "Andre, Andre." Closer to the stage, some fans began singing the lyrics to "Inside," the first collaboration between Avantasia and Andre, from 2001.
When he spoke, Tobias Sammet praised Andre Matos as an unprecedented vocalist: “The best singer to ever emerge in Latin America, one of the best singers in the entire Universe, one of the best of all time and a friend, never to be forgotten,” he declared. “I am moved and happy to have called him my friend, he is one of you, Andre Matos! God bless his soul.”.
Tobias Sammet's difficulty in coping with the loss of his friend Andre Matos
In an interview with Wikimetal a few weeks before the show, Sammet also gave a lengthy statement about his friend, recalling the performance alongside Shaman for the RituAlive as one of his fondest memories of his time in Brazil. At the time, they both performed the track "Pride" on one of the most classic recordings of Brazilian metal.
In the conversation, the German also confessed the difficulty of performing "Reach Out For The Light" at the first show after Andre Matos' death, since they had both performed the track together just a few weeks earlier, when Avantasia and Shaman were headliners at the Free Pass Metal Festival , held in São Paulo and remembered as the singer's last show.
“It was extremely difficult [to sing that song]. I’m not someone who usually shows it, but I’m emotional about things. I can’t hide it most of the time, but I was on stage and I didn’t feel good. Suddenly, I had so many images before my eyes, in my mind, and I was getting into a difficult situation, I can say, for myself. I really had to say, ‘no, no, no, think about something else, think about something else.’ That was difficult, but it got easier over the years,” Tobias said. “Now it’s a good feeling, but at the beginning it wasn’t. Before, I thought: ‘Okay, I’m not going to start crying on stage, I can’t do that.’”.
READ ALSO: Avantasia Interview: Tobias Sammet talks about returning to Brazil, Andre Matos and more