The singer Gal Costa, legend of Brazilian music with a crystal clear voice and muse of tropicalism, died Wednesday, November 9, 2022, at the age of 77, announced his entourage. “Gal Costa died this morning at her home in Sao Paulo.“, can we read in a press release sent by his press service, which did not specify the causes of death. Gal Costa had to cancel a concert last weekend at the Primavera Sound festival in Sao Paulo, after having suffered in September theremoval of a nodule from the nasal cavity. A funeral wake is scheduled for Friday, November 11, at the Sao Paulo State Legislative Assembly, and will be open to the public, but only Gal Costa’s relatives will attend his burial. She had a 17-year-old adopted son.
Born in Salvador de Bahia, she was one of the leading figures of tropicalism at the end of the 60s, along with other legendary singers such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. With her soft voice and rising very high in the treble, she became the muse of this movement which revolutionized Brazilian music, mixing traditional rhythms and influences of rock and British or American pop. “I am very touched and saddened by the death of my sister Gal Costa“tweeted Gilberto Gil, 80.
“What silence, what emptiness in Brazilian music“, said for her part Marisa Monte, a 55-year-old Brazilian singer who has always been very inspired by the style of the interpreter of success as Baby Where Chuva de Prata. “Gal Costa was one of the greatest singers in the world, one of the main artists who carried the name and the sound of Brazil all over the world (…) Our country is losing one of its great voices“, reacted for his part the elected president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Instagram.
Gal Costa’s inimitable voice has enchanted music lovers far beyond the borders of Brazil. She had concerts scheduled in London and Lisbon for the next few weeks. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa paid tribute in a statement to “one of the richest and most varied careers in Brazilian popular music“.
On the beach of Copacabana, in Rio de Janeiro, passers-by were shocked. “She was a very important artist, not only for me, but for all of Brazil and the whole world. It’s an irreparable loss, it really surprised me, she was on tour“, told AFP-TV Rose Marie Farias, a 52-year-old teacher.