Gal Costa, piercing voice of Brazil's Tropicalia movement, has died at 77
Gal Costa, the Brazilian singer and key figure in the Tropicália movement of the late 1960s, died Wednesday. Costa's official social media channels shared the news; no cause of death was given. She was 77.
Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos, who went by Gal Costa, was born Sept. 26, 1945 in Bahia, the northeastern Brazilian state that was also home to influential Brazilian musicians Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia and Tom Zé.
As they moved to São Paulo, together this adventurous group of musicians fused traditional rhythms with the surging (and insurgent) sounds of psychedelic rock in the 1960s.
Costa was self taught, with ''no professional training at all,'' she told the New York Times in 1985. ''I didn't study music, and I don't read music; I sing by feeling.''
At: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/09/1135562321/obituary-gal-costa-tropicalia
Renowned Brazilian vocalist Gal Costa, 1945-2022.
"Gal Costa was one of the greatest singers in the world," President-elect Lula de Silva tweeted today.
"Her talent, technique and daring enriched and renewed our culture, shaped and marked the lives of millions of Brazilians."