Gal Costa | Artist

Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos aka Gal Costa was a Brazilian singer born 1945 in Salvador, Bahia. She was one of the main figures of the Tropicalia music scene in Brazil in the late 1960s and appeared on the acclaimed compilation Tropicália: ou Panis et Cirenses (1968). As a teenager Cost began listening to Bossa Nova went on to work as a clerk in Salvador's main record store to get closer to music. At 18, she was introduced to composer Caetano Veloso and the two became close friends. Gal debuted her professional career on the night of 22 August 1964 at the concert Nós, por exemplo (We, For Example), where she performed alongside Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Maria Bethânia and Tom Zé, among others. Her first album Domingo recorded with Veloso, was released in 1967 through Philips Records. One song taken from this album, "Coração Vagabundo", became a huge hit. The same year, Gal also performed two songs on the 2nd International Music Festival. In 1969, Gal released her eponymous solo debut album, which included "Baby" and "Divino Maravilhoso". The album is considered a Tropicalismo classic, balanced between Brazilian stylizations and North American psychedelic influences. She started her career singing bossa nova and pop music but shifted towards psychedelic pop/rock in the late sixties, recording songs in Portuguese, Spanish and English. The "Tropicalismo" movement in Brazilian music fused psych-tinged rock with the Brazilian styles of bossa nova and latin rhythms. She has recorded many fine albums numbering 31 studio albums plus several excellent live albums. her early albums Gal Costa and Gal from 1968 and 1969 respectively are superb albums. Other standouts include Legal (1970), India (1973), Cantar (1974) and the live album Fa-tal: Gal a todo vapor (1971). In 1982 the single "Festa Do Interior" from the double album Fantasia became her biggest ever hit, going multi-platinum by the end of the year. Costa appeared in the 1995 film The Mandarin (O Mandarim) as the singer Carmen Miranda. She has recorded songs in Portuguese, Spanish and English. In her personal life Gal was bisexual, she was enamoured of Marina Lima in the 1990s and was married briefly to the Brazilian musician Marco Pereira. In 2023, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Gal Costa at number 90 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Artist Website: galcosta.com.br

Featured Albums: Gal Costa

Related Artists: Tom Ze, Caetano Veloso

Collections: Women of Note