Rita Lee

Rita Lee

Genres: mpb, rock, brazilian, female vocalists, brasil

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About Rita Lee

Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho was born in São Paulo, Brazil, on 31 December 1947, and passed away in her hometown on 8 May 2023. Best known as Rita Lee, she was a Brazilian MPB singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, actress, writer, TV host and animals rights activist of American and Italian descent, being regarded as the "Queen of Brazilian Rock". Rita helped to incorporate the rock revolution into the creative explosion of tropicalismo, formed the most celebrated Brazilian rock band in the world, Os Mutantes, and created solo songs with enormous popular appeal without losing her freedom and irreverence. Former member of the group Os Mutantes (1966 — 1972) and leader of the band Tutti Frutti (1973 — 1978), Lee participated in important revolutions in the world of music and society, such as the Tropicália movement during the Brazilian dictatorship, which led her to be the artist with the most censored songs in Brazil during that period. Her songs, usually watered with an acid irony or with a claim for female independence and sexual topics, became ubiquitous in the charts. The album, Fruto Proibido (1975), released together with the band Tutti Frutti, is commonly seen as a fundamental milestone in the history of Brazilian rock, considered by some as her masterpiece. In 1976, Lee began a romantic relationship with guitarist Roberto de Carvalho and since then he has been the partner on most of her songs and accompanied her in all her live performances. They had three children, including Beto Lee, also a guitarist, who accompanies his parents in concerts. With a career that has reached 50 years, Rita Lee has gone from the musical innovation of the late 1960s and 1970s to the highly successful romantic ballads of the 1980s. In October 2008, Rolling Stone magazine promoted the List of the 100 Greatest Artists in Brazilian Music, where Rita Lee ranks 15th. In 2001, Rita Lee won the Latin Grammy for Best Portuguese Language Rock Album with 3001. She would receive five more nominations for the award and in 2022, she was awarded the Musical Excellence award for her body of work. In 2012, she announced that she would retire from performing live due to physical frailty. "I retire from shows, but never from music," she wrote on Twitter. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021 and had been undergoing treatment for the disease. She passed away in her hometown of São Paulo at the age of 75 on 8 May 2023. Studio albums: Build Up (1970) Hoje É o Primeiro Dia do Resto da Sua Vida (1972) Atrás do Porto Tem uma Cidade (1974) Fruto Proibido (1975) Entradas e Bandeiras (1976) Babilônia (1978) Mania de Você (1979) Lança Perfume (1980) Saúde (1981) Flagra (1982) Bombom (1983) Rita e Roberto (1985) Flerte Fatal (1987) Zona Zen (1988) Perto do Fogo (1990) Todas as Mulheres do Mundo (1993) Santa Rita de Sampa (1997) 3001 (2000) Aqui, Ali, em Qualquer Lugar (2001) Balacobaco (2003) Reza (2012)

Taken from Last.fm

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