Iconic Brazilian rock singer Rita Lee dies at age 75 after a two-year battle with lung cancer
Renowned Brazilian rock singer and songwriter Rita Lee, an icon of the artistic movement Tropicalia, passed away on Tuesday at age 75 after a two-year battle with lung cancer, her family said.
“We announce the death of Rita Lee late last night at her home in Sao Paulo, surrounded by all the love of her family, as she always wanted,” said a statement on the singer’s Instagram account, inviting the public to to wake up. Wednesday.
Her death sparked an outpouring of tributes from artists, politicians and celebrities who applauded her pioneering role in Brazilian rock.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called her “an artist ahead of her time” and “one of the greatest and most brilliant names in Brazilian music.”
Lee died Tuesday after a two-year battle with lung cancer. She turned 75 years old
Rita Lee was known as part of the pioneering Brazilian band Os Mutantes
Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho was born on December 31, 1947 in Sao Paulo, the son of a dentist of American descent and a Brazilian pianist of Italian descent.
She was at the center of Brazil’s politically charged Tropicalia movement, which emerged from 1964 in defiance of a military dictatorship, and her work was often censored at the time.
With more than 20 albums recorded and 55 million records sold, her songs touched on issues related to feminism and sex at a time when such topics were taboo.
Lee rose to fame in the 1960s with the band Os Mutantes, formed with Arnaldo Baptista and Sergio Dias, playing alongside legends of Brazilian pop music such as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso to international acclaim.
Lee (center) with her Os Mutantes bandmates. The group was formed in the late 1960s
Lee helped transform music in Brazil in the 1960s by singing about taboo subjects such as sex
Kicked out of Os Mutantes by Baptista, whom she had been married to, for alleged artistic differences, Lee played with the band Tutti Frutti in the 1970s.
That band broke up towards the end of the decade, leaving Rita to launch her solo career, and she often played with her husband Roberto de Carvalho, the father of her three children.
Rita Lee was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021 and has been undergoing treatment ever since.