Gal Costa, one of the greatest voices of Brazilian Popular Music (MPB), passed away this Wednesday, October 9, at the age of 77. The cause of death has not yet been disclosed by the artist’s family.
Gal was one of the attractions at the Primavera Sound festival, which took place in São Paulo last weekend, but her participation was canceled at the last minute. According to her team, she needed to recover from a surgery to remove a nodule in her right nasal cavity. She would be off the stage until the end of November, following medical recommendations.
Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos (born on September 26, 1945, in Salvador, Brazil), better known as Gal Costa, is a popular Brazilian MPB singer and acoustic guitarist, considered by many to be the greatest female singer in Brazil of all time. She is also known as the “Muse of Tropicália.”
Gal became one of the leading singers of the Brazilian countercultural movement Tropicália during the late 1960s and early 70s, quickly earning the title of one of Brazil’s best and most acclaimed singers, throughout a very successful career with many hits and prestige over the years.
During Tropicália, she became a political activist, clashing with the Brazilian government when dissent in music was censored, and later representing the movement alone in her country when her fellow Tropicália members and friends were exiled to London due to the dictatorship occurring at the time.
The musician Caetano Veloso introduced her to Gilberto Gil and Tom Zé in 1963 (and later to Maria Bethânia), who secured a recording contract for her in São Paulo for her debut album Domingo with Caetano Veloso.
Just before recording her first album, João Gilberto, the “Father of Bossa Nova,” met her, and after a few hours listening to “Gracinha” (as she was known at the time) sing for him while playing acoustic guitar, he said: “Gracinha, you are the greatest singer in Brazil.”
In the following years, Gal would prove him right with a fruitful and rewarding career, with encouragement from João Gilberto himself, her greatest idol.
Gal recorded songs composed by several of Brazil’s most popular composers, such as Antônio Carlos Jobim, Jorge Ben Jor, Chico Buarque, Rita Lee, and especially her close friends Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. She was also part of the supergroup Doces Bárbaros, active in 1976, 1994, and 2002.