Gal Costa, one of the greatest voices of Brazilian popular music, died on the morning of this Wednesday, October 9, at the age of 77. The cause of death has not yet been disclosed by the artist’s press office.
Gal was one of the attractions of 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 after the removal of a nodule in her right nasal cavity and would be off the stage until the end of November, following medical recommendations.
Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos (born September 26, 1945, in Salvador, Brazil), better known as Gal Costa, is one of the most popular Brazilian singers of MPB, considered by many to be the greatest Brazilian singer of all time. She was also known as the “Muse of Tropicália”.
Gal became one of the leading singers of the counterculture movement “Tropicália” in the late 60s and early 70s, quickly earning the title of one of Brazil’s best and most acclaimed singers, following a highly successful career in the years that followed.
During Tropicália, she became a political activist, clashing with the Brazilian government in the fight against censorship. She even represented the movement alone when her companions and friends from Tropicália were exiled in London due to the dictatorship at the time.
The Beginning of the Career
Colleague Caetano Veloso introduced her to Gilberto Gil and Tom Zé in 1963, who secured her a recording contract in São Paulo for her debut album “Domingo,” recorded with Caetano Veloso.
Shortly before recording her first album, the “Father of Bossa Nova,” João Gilberto, met her, and after a few hours listening to Gracinha (as she was known at the time) sing while he played guitar, he said: “Gracinha, you are the greatest singer in Brazil.”
In the following years, Gal would prove this statement with a productive and successful career, with encouragement from João Gilberto himself, Gal’s greatest idol.
Gal recorded songs composed by several of Brazil’s most popular songwriters, such as Antônio Carlos Jobim, Jorge Ben Jor, Chico Buarque, Rita Lee, and especially her closest friends Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. She was also a member of the supergroup “Doces Bárbaros,” active in 1976, 1994, and 2002.