I led a quiet life
Likes shade and fresh water
My God, how much time have I spent
Without knowingThat’s when my father told me
Daughter, you are the black sheep of the family
Now it’s time for you to take over and disappear
We knew this was about to happen… But receiving the news causes endless sadness: Rita Lee, one of the greatest singers and songwriters in the history of Brazilian music, has died at the age of 75. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021 and had been undergoing treatments against the disease.
The singer’s family released a statement on her social media:
“We announce the death of Rita Lee, at her residence, in São Paulo, capital, late last night, surrounded by all the love of her family, as she always wanted”. The wake will be open to the public, at the Planetarium in Ibirapuera Park, on Wednesday (10), from 10 am to 5 pm.
Rita Lee Jones had a unique trajectory in the history of Brazilian music. She incorporated the rock revolution into the creative explosion of tropicalism, participating in the most revered Brazilian rock band in the world, Os Mutantes, then Tutti Frutti, and then embarked on a solo career full of successes without losing her challenging and irreverent essence.
For almost 60 years of career, Rita was modern, ironic and mocking. The title “queen of Brazilian rock” came almost naturally, but she thought it was “tacky” – she preferred “patron saint of freedom”.
Rita Lee Jones was born in São Paulo, on December 31, 1947. Her father, Charles Jones, was a dentist and the son of US immigrants. Her mother, the Italian Romilda Padula, was a pianist, and encouraged her daughter to study the instrument and sing with her sisters.
At age 16, Rita joined a female vocal trio, the Teenage Singers, and made amateur performances at school parties. Singer and producer Tony Campello discovered the singers and called them to participate in recordings as backing vocals.
In 1964 she joined a rock group called Six Sided Rockers which, after some line-up and name changes, gave rise to Mutantes in 1966. The group was initially formed by Rita Lee, Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Dias.
They were fundamental in tropicalismo, by uniting psychedelia with local rhythms, and became the Brazilian group with the greatest recognition among rock musicians in the world, idolized by Kurt Cobain, David Byrne, Jack White, Beck and others.
The trio accompanied Gilberto Gil in “Domingo no parque” at the 3rd Festival de Música Popular Brasileira by Record, in 1967, and Caetano Veloso in “É forbidden to prohibit” at the 3rd Festival Internacional da Canção, by Globo in 1968, two landmarks of tropicália.
Os Mutantes also participated in the 1968 album “Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis”, the fundamental recording of the movement.
He was Mutantes from 1966 to 1972, where he recorded “Os Mutantes” (68), “Mutantes” (69), “A Divina Comédia ou Ando Meio Offline” (70), “Jardim Elétrico” (71) and “Mutantes e Seus Cometas in the Country of the Bauretz” (72).
The end of the relationship with Arnaldo Baptista coincided with her departure from Mutantes. Her first solo album was “Build up”, even before leaving the band, in 1970. She also released “Hoje é o Primeiro Dia do Resto da Sua Vida”, in 1972, still recorded with the group.
Her post-Mutantes career took shape with the group Tutti Frutti, in which she recorded five albums, with emphasis on “Fruto prohibited”, from 1975, which had the song “Now it’s just missing you”.
From 1979 onwards, she began to work in partnership with her husband Roberto de Carvalho, and established a solo career for good. She wrote and recorded pop-rock songs with great success.
One of the most successful albums was “Rita Lee”, from 1979, with “Mania de Você”, “Chega mais” and “Doce Vampiro”. In the album of the same title the following year, she goes in a more pop direction and is even more successful with “Lança Perfume” and “Baila comigo”.
She was a popular rocker before and after the genre became a commercial phenomenon in Brazil in the mid-1980s. Notable albums included “Saúde” (1981) and “Rita e Roberto” (1985), with which two took to the stage of the first Rock in Rio.
In 1991 she began a four-year period apart from Roberto de Carvalho. Her comeback was in 1995, on the tour for the album “A Marca da Zorra”, when she also opened for the Rolling Stones in Brazil. The following year, they got married civilly after 20 years together.
In 1996, she fell from the balcony of her farm, under the influence of medication, and broke her maxillary recess. Rita started trying to quit alcohol and drugs, but told “Fantástico” that she only managed to do that in January 2006.
In 2001, RIta Lee won the Latin Grammy for Best Portuguese Language Rock Album with “3001”. She would still have five more nominations for the award, and would receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
In 2012, she announced that she would stop performing due to her physical frailty. “I retire from concerts but never from music,” she wrote on Twitter.
On January 28 of that year, at the Festival de Verão de Sergipe, she performed the show announced as the last of her career, when she argued with a policeman. She was accused of contempt of authority, taken to the police station and then released.
He also performed in the Federal District at the end of 2012, in which he lowered his pants to the public, and sang at São Paulo’s anniversary in 2013, applauded by the public in his city.
His last studio album of new songs came out in April 2012. “Reza” was, then, his first work of new songs in nine years. The title track was the working song, defined by her as “a prayer for protection from envy, anger and plagues”.
Altogether there were 40 albums, 6 by Mutantes, 34 in his solo career.
In 2016, she released the sensational “Rita Lee: An Autobiography”. One of the book’s revelations was that she was sexually abused at the age of six by a technician who came to fix her mother’s sewing machine at home.
In the book, a bestseller, she also spoke sincerely about episodes in her career, such as when she was expelled from the Mutantes in 1972, and her personal life, such as her struggle with alcoholism.
In addition to autobiography, Rita Lee has a long career as a writer. The series “Dr. Alex” is from 1983, but was re-released in 2019 and 2020 and focuses on the singer’s fight for the animal and environmental cause.
She also wrote “Amiga Ursa: A Sad Story with a Happy Ending” in children’s literature. “FavoRita”, “Dropz”, “Storynhas” and “Rita Lírica” are other books written by the singer.
On TV, Rita participated in the soap operas “Top Model”, “Malu Mulher”, “Vamp” and “Celebridade” in special appearances.
She participated in the original formation of the GNT program “Saia Justa”, alongside Mônica Waldvogel, Marisa Orth and Fernanda Young, from 2002 to 2004.
cancer diagnosis
In May 2021, Rita Lee was diagnosed with lung cancer. She followed immunotherapy and radiotherapy treatments. Four months later, she released the last single of her career, “Changes”, in partnership with her husband Roberto de Carvalho and producer Gui Boratto.
In April 2022, her son Beto Lee wrote that she was cured of cancer, however, fans were suspicious whether it was true or not.
In recent years, she has lived on a farm in the interior of São Paulo with her family. She leaves three children: Roberto, João and Antônio.
(Source: The Globe)