Gal Costa was a Brazilian singer of popular music. She was a major figure in the tropicalia music scene in Brazil in the late 1960s and appears on the acclaimed compilation Tropicália: ou Panis et Circenses (1968).
Gal Costa, a well-known Brazilian singer passed away at age 77.
Gal Costa, a Brazilian musician who was a prominent figure in the 1960s Tropicalia movement in Brazil, passed away on Wednesday. She had a 77-year-old age. Her press team informed CNN affiliate, CNN Brasil, that she had passed away.
A brief message and a black-and-white image of the singer were also posted on Wednesday morning by Gal Costa’s official Instagram account. CNN Brasil reports that her press team did not confirm the cause of death. According to a press statement, the singer had spent the previous three weeks healing following nose surgery, CNN Brasil said. Last weekend’s Primavera Sound event in Sao Paulo had Costa on the bill, but he postponed.
News of her death led to an outpouring of condolences online.
“Gal Costa was one of the world’s greatest singers and one of our main artists who brought the name and sounds of Brazil to the entire planet,” Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on Twitter. “Her talent, technique, and audacity enriched and renovated our culture and had an impact on the lives of millions of Brazilians.”
Early Life
Gal Costa was born on 26 September 1945(77 years old) in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She holds a Brazilian Nationality and her zodiac sign is Libra. She belongs to the white race.
Personal Life
Gal Costa is bisexual. She was enamored of Marina Lima in the 1990s.
Mariah Costa Penna (died 1993), Gal Costa’s mother, spent hours listening to classical music throughout her pregnancy in the hopes that Gal would be interested in music. Arnaldo Burgos (dead 1960), Gal’s father, died when Gal was 15 years old, and the two never met.
On the evening of August 22, 1964, Gal Costa Gal had her stage debut in the concert Nós, por exemplo (We, For Example), where she shared the stage with Veloso, Gil, Maria Bethânia, and Tom Zé, among others. Her hometown’s Vila Velha Theatre opened for business with the event.
She also appeared at the same venue and with the same vocal partners in Nova Bossa Velha, Velha Bossa Nova (New Old Wave, Old New Wave) the same year. She subsequently followed in the footsteps of Bethânia, whose performance Opinio (Opinion) had been a major smash there, and left Salvador to live in her cousin Nvea’s home in Rio de Janeiro.
On Bethânia’s first album, which was published in 1965, Gal made her first professional recording. It was the duet “Sol Negro” (Black Sun), which was composed by Caetano Veloso, Bethânia’s brother. She then made her first singles available through RCA Records, “Eu vim da Bahia” by Gil and “Sim, foi você” by Veloso.
Minha Senhora
The next year, Gal personally got to know Gilberto and sang “Minha Senhora,” a song by Gil and Torquato Neto, during TV Rio’s First International Music Festival. The crowd at the Festival was unimpressed.
Her next album, Legal, wasn’t as out of the ordinary as her previous one, and a live CD the following year once again mixed together hard rock with soothing Brazilian sounds. The 1973 record cover for Costa’s song Andia, which accentuates her red bikini bottom, was censored.
Gal has recorded songs written by some of the most well-known composers in Brazil, including Tom Jobim, Ben, and Erasmo Carlos. She was one of the Doces Barbaros’ integral members in the 1970s, along with Veloso, Gil, and Maria Bethânia. For years, fans anticipated that this iconic band from Brazilian popular music would reunite.
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Her greatest success to date, “Festa Do Interior,” from the double album Fantasia, became multi-platinum by year’s end in 1982. Gal played singer Carmen Miranda in the 1995 movie The Mandarin (O Mandarim). She has songs in three languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The biographical movie Meu nome é Gal, which comes out in 2023, stars Sophie Charlotte as Gal Costa.