Rita Lee, the legendary Brazilian musician, composer and founder of the trailblazing band Os Mutantes, has died at 75. Her family said in a satement on Tuesday May 9, that she died after a two-year battle with lung cancer.
Rita Lee was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021 and dubbed her tumor “Jair,” a sarcastic reference to Brazil’s widely despised then-president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The pioneering singer and feminist icon, who sold more than 55 million recordings during a six-decade career, went into remission last year but died on Monday night at her home in So Paulo.
“We announce the death of Rita Lee at her home in Sao Paulo late last night, surrounded by all the love of her family, as she always wanted,” a statement posted on the singer’s Instagram account said, inviting the public to her wake on Wednesday.
Aside from her singing career, Lee hosted the Brazilian radio show Radio Amador for nine months in 1986. That same year, Lee published three children’s books and performed in several Brazilian films and television series.
TvLeeZo (a play on “televiso,” the Portuguese term for television), her own discussion show, debuted on MTV Brasil in 1990.
She hosted the Brazilian cable TV conversation show Saia Justa from 2002 until 2004.
She contributed the song “Pistis Sophia” to the Red Hot Organization’s most recent charity CD, Red Hot+Rio 2, in 2011. The album was released as a follow-up to 1996’s Red Hot + Rio. The proceeds from the sales were contributed to promote awareness and funds for the battle against AIDS and other associated health and social challenges.
Her life autobiography Rita Lee: Uma Autobiografia was Brazil’s best-selling nonfiction book of 2017.