Brazilian singer Gal Costa, a major figure in the country’s ’60s Tropicália music scene, has died. She was 77. The news was confirmed by the singer’s official Twitter account, which wrote: “It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that we communicate the death of singer Gal Costa. We appreciate everyone’s love at this difficult time.”

Born Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos in 1945 in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Costa first became interested in Bossa Nova by listening to João Gilberto’s “Chega de Saudade” on the radio. Her professional career kicked off in 1960 after meeting fellow singer Caetano Veloso.

In the ’60s, Costa, Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Gilberto Gil, and Tom Zé birthed what would become known as Brazil’s Tropicália movement — a style of music that blended local folk, Afro-Brazilian, and Western psychedelic-rock. The movement was also political, meant to defy Brazil’s military dictatorship.

In 1967, Costa released Domingo, a collaborative album alongside Veloso. Costa also appeared on the 1968 collaborative album, Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis, which featured other high-profile acts in the movement such as Zé and Os Mutantes.

Costa recorded many albums over her lifetime, in particular 1973’s influential Índia and a 1971 live record, Gal a Todo Vapor. In 2011, she received a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Our little sister is gone,” Gil paid tribute to Costa on his social-media accounts, writing in Portuguese: “So many people in Brazil were enchanted by her singing. Now her singing stays with us for the rest of our lives, for the entire time of our history.”

Brazil’s president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also wrote in Portuguese: “Gal Costa was among the world’s best singers, among our principal artists to carry the name and sounds of Brazil to the whole planet. Her talent, technique and courage enriched and renewed our culture, cradled and marked the lives of millions of Brazilians.”

https://twitter.com/LulaOficial/status/1590358581643456512/