Gal Costa

Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos was born in Salvador on September 26, 1945. As a teenager, she worked as a clerk in a record store and fell in love with bossa nova after hearing João Gilberto on the radio. In 1964, she sang in Nós, Por Exemplo..., the production that inaugurated Teatro Vila Velha, alongside Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé and Maria Bethânia, and soon moved to Rio. The name Gal was suggested by producer Guilherme Araújo. She made her LP debut in 1967 with Domingo, shared with Caetano, on Philips, the label she remained with until 1983 and which released the album Gal Costa in 1969. She was one of the central voices of Tropicália, Brazil's late-1960s avant-garde movement. She died in São Paulo on November 9, 2022.