Gal Costa (born Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos September 26, 1945) in Salvador, Brazil, is a popular singer in Brazil. Influenced by music from a young age by her record store owner father, Costa became one of Brazil's foremost female...
[more]Gal Costa (born Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos September 26, 1945) in Salvador, Brazil, is a popular singer in Brazil.
Influenced by music from a young age by her record store owner father, Costa became one of Brazil's foremost female Tropicalismo movement singers and guitar players during the late 1960s and 70s. Along with her friend Maria Bethânia, she became a political activist often coming into conflict with Brazil's military government when dissent in music was censored in 1968.
Fellow musician Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia's brother, introduced her to Gilberto Gil and Tom Zé in 1963, who managed to secure her a recording deal in São Paulo for her debut album Domingo with Caetano Veloso. Her eponymous solo debut in 1969 is considered a Tropicalismo classic, containing songs by Veloso, Gil, Zé, and Jorge Ben. While this album balanced between Brazilian stylizations and Anglo-American psychedelic influences, her follow-up album released the same year found her, like Gil, diving head-first into the latter. Her next album, Legal, was not as out-there as its predecessor, and a live album the following year again balanced smooth Brazilian sounds with heavy rock. In 1973, the cover of Costa's album India was censored due to her wearing a risque red bikini. Costa has recorded songs composed by a number of Brazil's most popular songwriters such as Tom Jobim, Ben, and Erasmo Carlos. 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 (Mandarim, O) as the singer Carmen Miranda. She has recorded songs in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
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