Gal Costa (and how I made peace with Brazilian music)
One of Brazil’s greatest voices died yesterday
On November 9th, we Brazilians were surprised by the sad news that Gal Costa — one of our country’s greatest voices — was dead. She was 77 years old, most of this time dedicated to music.
Like I always say, I’m not a music expert. But I love music and I like to write about it, so I have to write a few lines about Gal Costa. And how she helped me rediscover Brazilian music.
I’ll turn 30 in one week, exactly. And as many 90’s gay kids like me, I grew up listening to American and British pop music: Britney Spears, Madonna, Spice Girls… And, now, we respect foreign pop divas more than any other musicians: Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Beyoncé…
I’m not gonna lie. This is what I hear the most on a daily basis. This is my go-to music, when I open Spotify. American/British pop music.
But a few years ago, I “made peace” with Brazilian music. I learned to love it. And two women — two Brazilian divas — were responsible for that.
The first one is Rita Lee, the Queen of Rock in Brazil. The other was Gal. I can also mention Jorge Ben, the one man whose music I love the most, but let’s focus on the women for this article.
I have always loved Brazilian telenovelas. I grew up watching them, all the 200 episodes, from Monday to Friday, at 9pm.
These telenovelas commonly had two soundtracks: one “national”, with Brazilian songs, and one “international”, mostly in English. One day, I was making a Spotify playlist with telenovela soundtracks and noticed that one woman had a lot of songs in my playlist. Rita Lee.
I liked those songs, so I decided to hear more from Rita.
The same thing then happened with Gal. She sang the opening theme to my favorite telenovela of all time, Vale Tudo, and had many other songs featured in soundtracks, from the 70s to the 2000s. I always loved her soft but powerful voice.
I was twenty-something when I discovered most of Gal’s famous songs from the 70s, 80s, 90s… Brazilian standards that all of us should know and celebrate — because, as everyone said yesterday, she was one of our most beautiful voices and one of our best artists.
After Rita and Gal, I took the time to listen to many other Brazilian artists that I should already know: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Novos Baianos, Elis Regina, Elza Soares…
Gal, a Brazilian DIVA.
In this blog, I like to write about my favorite pop divas, like Rihanna and Britney Spears. And, well… Gal was a diva. Not a pop diva, but a diva. She had the voice and the performances of one.
In the 60s, she was a hippie queen, one of the most importante figures in the Tropicalia movement. In the 70s, she released gems like India and Gal Tropical, where she mixes influences from all places in Brazil.
Brazil is a continent, with many different scenes and sounds, and Gal Costa could move through all of them naturally.
The 80s and 90s were when she became more pop, maybe, with acts like Vaca Profana (Unholy Cow) and the romantic Chuva de Prata (Silver Rain), two of her biggest hits. In the 00s, she turned to a more traditional bossa-nova approach. And then came the 2010s.
Already a sextagenarian, with a career spanning half a century, Gal could continue with her traditional bossa-nova and MPB sound. But she decided to keep up with the current times: in 2011, she released the album Recanto (Quiet Place), with funk carioca and electronic beats.
Her last album of new music, A Pele do Futuro (The Skin of the Future), was based on 70s disco. At the time, she said she was inspired by the music her teenage son was hearing. Hear Sublime:
This album also had Cuidando de Longe (Taking Care from Afar), that was written by and featured Marília Mendonça. Marília was a sertanejo, country-pop, very popular singer. But Gal, a more “serious” artist, so to speak, had no problem in celebrating Marilia’s craft.
Marília, sadly, is also dead. She died in 2021, in a plane crash, at only 26. She is another Brazilian singer that deserves all the honors.
This is one of the things I love the most about Gal: she could sing anything with the same soft but powerful voice, with an amazing performance.
From Caetano’s poetic lyrics, to the rock in Dê um Role (Take a Walk), the political messages in Vaca Profana or Canta Brasil (Sing Brazil), to the soft bossa-nova in Mar e Sol (Sea and Sun). Or disco music in Sublime and disco music with country-pop lyrics in Cuidando de Longe.
Her last album was released in 2021, and kept her up with the times, once more: she re-recorded some of her old hits, with new artists, in an album called Nenhuma Dor (No Pain).
An unique voice
An article on Brazilian magazine Veja explained some of the reasons why Gal’s voice was so unique.
She had an amazing set of skills and she could sing like she wasn’t even breathing between words. Her voice was very technical and crystal clear. But, also, she was an amazing interpreter, acting convincingly in any kind of song, simple or sofisticated.
There’s a myth that says that João Gilberto — one of the founders of bossa-nova and Gal’s biggest inspiration — said that “she was the biggest singer in Brazil”. In the moment he met her, before she even started her career.
I mean: there’s a video where she’s able to match the key of an electric guitar in every note. When we say she could do anything with her voice, that’s what we’re talking about. The guitar-match starts in 1:46.
Also, Gal was a powerful political act. A free woman, who performed with all her power and sensuality, unapologetically. And she did that in an age when Brazil was even more conservative than it is now.
As Gilberto Gil, also a brilliant musician and one of her best friends, said: Gal will be eternal. There are more than 40 records, thousands of videos, millions of pictures that will keep her alive in our memories.
If you are one of my few gringo followers — or a twenty-something gay guy who doesn’t hear Brazilian music, like I was — , I really recommend giving Gal Costa some streams. Here’s a playlist with my favorite songs from her:
I always said I wanted to be a singer, and what holds me together, in my life, my head, is music — Gal Costa.