Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos

Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos was born in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Befriending Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia in the early 1960s, she debuted on the historic bossa nova collaboration Domingo with Veloso in 1967.

When the Brazilian military dictatorship exiled Veloso and Gil in 1969, Gal Costa became the heroic female voice and standard-bearer of Tropicália in Brazil. Her sensational 1969 self-titled solo albums fused Janis Joplin-inspired electric guitar feedback with bossa nova elegance, performing radical political anthems like "Divino, Maravilhoso" and "Baby." Across a six-decade career, Gal transitioned effortlessly from rock psychedelia to seductive MPB and bossa standards, immortalizing songs like "Vapor Barato," "Festa do Interior," and "Chuva de Prata." In 2011, she received the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva proclaimed her passing an irreplaceable loss for Brazilian culture.