Rita Lee, Brazil’s Queen of Rock, has died aged 75, after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021.
Tributes have poured in for the Os Mutantes star, with Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calling Lee “one of the greatest and most brilliant names in Brazilian music”.
In a statement shared on Twitter, he said: “An artist ahead of her time. She thought the title of queen of rock was inappropriate, but the nickname does justice to her trajectory.”
Who was Rita Lee?
Rita Lee, born December 31, 1947, was a Brazilian rock singer-songwriter from São Paulo.
She was a member of the Os Mutantes rock band in the 1960s, and later went solo.
Os Mutantes were influential in the Tropicália movement, which challenged censorship in music in the 1960s, when Brazil was under military rule.
Over the course of her career, she sold more than 55 million records and won seven Latin Grammy awards. Lee was also recently honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Despite being dubbed the Queen of Rock, she found the title “tacky” and instead preferred to be known as the “Patron Saint of Freedom,” according to the BBC.
Lee retired from performing in 2012, aged 64.
In 2021, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and nicknamed her tumour Jair, after then-president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro.
In 2016, Lee published an autobiography, in which The Guardian reported she suggested that her own epitaph read: “She was never a good example, but she was a good person.”
She even joked about how she expected people to react to her death, writing: “I can already imagine the words of affection those who detest me will utter.
“On social media, some will say: ‘Oh, I thought she’d already died, hahaha.’”
She died on May 8, 2023, at her home in São Paulo.
