Salvador (Brasil), 1945

By Adriana Veríssimo

João Gilberto considered her the greatest singer in Brazil. And, indeed, Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos wanted to be a singer since she was a child. She learned to play the guitar and, in her teenage years, worked in a record store. She kept up with all the musical news and became a fan of bossa nova, a musical genre from the late 1950s, influenced by jazz, which proposed a new way to play samba. She met Caetano Veloso and his sister Maria Bethânia in 1963. With them, Gilberto Gil and Tom Zé, she put together the musical show Nós, por exemplo in 1964. She recorded her first single in 1965, which included the songs “Eu vim da Bahia,” by Gilberto Gil, and “Sim, foi você,” by Caetano Veloso. The following year she adopted her stage name – Gal – when she participated in the I International Song Festival, competing with the song “Minha senhora,” by Gilberto Gil and Torquato Neto.

In 1967 she recorded her first full-length album, Domingo, with the also debuting Caetano Veloso. She participated in the tropicalist movement, influenced by the Beatles and Jovem Guarda, and was considered its muse. In 1968 she triumphed as a singer with her interpretation of “Divino maravilhoso,” composed by Gil and Caetano. The song “Baby,” written by Caetano and performed by her, was a milestone in her career. In 1976 she joined Maria Bethânia, Gilberto Gil, and Caetano Veloso to form the group Os Doces Bárbaros.

With her album Gal Tropical, from 1979, she began a new phase in her career, considered more popular and commercial. The CD O Sorriso do gato de Alice marked a turning point in her professional trajectory in 1994, earning her the Sharp and APCA awards that year. In 2002 she released her CD Bossa tropical, with songs by Alice Ruiz, Arnaldo Antunes, and John Lennon, and offered the show Doces bárbaros on Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro, alongside Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and Maria Bethânia.

In 2011 she recorded the album Recanto, produced by Caetano Veloso and featuring only songs by the Bahian colleague. In 2015, at seventy years old, she released Estratosférica, with fifteen unpublished songs by various authors.

Content updated on 07/08/2017 3:00 PM