RIO DE JANEIRO — Singer Gal Costa, an icon within the Tropicalia and Brazilian standard music actions who loved an almost six-decade profession, died on Wednesday. She was 77.
Her dying was confirmed by a press consultant, who supplied no additional data.
The soprano with wild curls of darkish hair was greatest recognized for lending her distinctive voice to compositions similar to Ary Barroso’s “Aquarela do Brasil” (Watercolor of Brazil), Tom Jobim’s “Dindi,” Jorge Ben Jor’s “Que Pena” (What a Disgrace) and Caetano Veloso’s “Child.”
“Gal Costa was among the many world’s greatest singers, amongst our principal artists to hold the title and sounds of Brazil to the entire planet,” President-elect Luiz Inácio da Silva wrote on Twitter alongside a photograph of him hugging her. “Her expertise, method and braveness enriched and renewed our tradition, cradled and marked the lives of thousands and thousands of Brazilians.”
Costa was born Maria da Graça Penna Burgos within the northeastern state of Bahia and got here onto the scene alongside future legends Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia.
All have been already profitable solo artists after they shaped the band Doces Bárbaros. Their joint aspect mission grew to become an necessary counterculture reference throughout Brazil’s two-decade navy dictatorship, inspiring a report, tour and documentary.
In 2011, Costa was awarded a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
She remained an lively performer till almost the tip, having just lately suspended exhibits to bear a surgical procedure on certainly one of her nostrils. Her subsequent live performance had been scheduled for Dec. 17, in Sao Paulo.
