How an obituary I commissioned ended up becoming the star of a rock concert

When Glenn Greenwald wrote an obituary of his friend Marielle Franco, he didn’t expect Roger Waters to get hold of it

In October the journalist Glenn Greenwald recalled being asked by The Independent to write an obituary of his friend Marielle Franco, the Brazilian politician who was murdered in March last year aged 37.

“My first reaction was not to do it because the emotions were still way too raw,” he wrote in The Intercept. “And that kind of personal, intimate writing isn’t what I feel comfortable doing, especially in a moment as vulnerable and difficult as that.”

Greenwald added: “But I saw it as an opportunity to process my emotions about Marielle through what I know best and what she was most – writing about political battles and causes and figures of defiance and dissent – and to try to viscerally convey to a foreign audience what made her such a singular force of inspiration.”

That piece – “half obituary and half personal reflection”— gained in excess 20,000 shares. Obits seldom exceed 1,000 shares.

What the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist didn’t know is that The Independent’s obituaries are syndicated to the i newspaper, a copy of which, he said, had been picked up by Roger Waters, who was touring Brazil.

The Pink Floyd star was so moved that he invited Greenwald to his concert in Rio de Janeiro “along with Marielle’s family – her 19-year-old daughter Luyara Santos, her sister Anielle, and her widow Mônica Benício”.

Greenwald wrote: “He pulled my article from his wallet, talked about it and put a huge image of it on the screen, and then had the three of them on the stage to pay tribute to Marielle.”

This – possibly the first obit to make it onto stage at a rock concert – was made possible by Barbara Speed, comment editor of the i newspaper, who ignored my instruction to publish Greenwald’s 900-word piece in its entirety or not at all. (The newspaper’s slot is for 550 words.)

Had she listened, Brazil’s leading newspapers would not have placed the story on their front pages the next day.

As Greenwald reminds us, paying tribute to his friend: “You never know the effects your actions will have on someone, even just a single individual, and the way that can ripple into the world.”