Monday, November 28th

by musicclipoftheday

passings

Gal Costa, singer, September 26, 1945–November 9, 2022

“Sua Estupidez” (R. Carlos), live (TV show), 2002

Gal Costa, one of Brazil’s greatest singers and a model for generations of Brazilian performers, died on Wednesday at her home in São Paulo. She was 77.

Her death was announced on her social media accounts. No cause was cited.

Ms. Costa’s voice, a lustrous mezzo-soprano, was a marvel of grace and vitality, equally capable of gravity-defying delicacy, tart teasing, jazzy agility and rock intensity. Over a recording career that spanned more than 50 years and three dozen albums, she championed innovative Brazilian songwriters and cross-fertilized Brazilian regional styles with international pop and rock.

In the 1960s, Ms. Costa was at the forefront of tropicália, the movement that brought psychedelic experimentation and anti-authoritarian irreverence to Brazilian pop music. When the leading songwriters of tropicália, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, were forced into exile by Brazil’s dictatorship, from 1969 to 1972, Ms. Costa recorded their songs for Brazilian listeners.

—New York Times obituary (excerpt), 11/9/22 (Jon Pareles)