Rita Lee
Rita Lee Jones (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʁitɐ li]; 31 December 1947 – 8 May 2023) was a Brazilian rock singer, musician and songwriter. She was a member of the band Os Mutantes and a popular figure in Brazilian entertainment. She was also known for being an animal rights activist and a vegan. She sold more than 55 million records worldwide.[1] Her autobiography Rita Lee: Uma Autobiografia was the best-selling non-fiction book of 2017 in Brazil.[2]
For the Playboy Playmate of the Month, see Rita Lee (model).
Rita Lee
8 May 2023 (aged 75)
- Singer
- songwriter
- actress
- author
- TV host
1966–2023
Early life and education[edit]
Rita Lee was born in Vila Mariana (district of São Paulo), Brazil, to an American-Brazilian father, Charles Fenley Jones,[3] a dentist descended from the Confederates, and Romilda Padula, a Brazilian mother of Italian ancestry and a pianist. She studied classical piano with the renowned pianist Magdalena Tagliaferro. In place of the traditional adolescent debut ball, she asked to receive a drum set.
Lee was educated in a French-language school and became fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian, as well as her native Portuguese and the English that her parents spoke at home.[4] She went to college, with the popular actress Regina Duarte as one of her classmates, but she soon left to pursue her musical career.
Other activities[edit]
Aside from her musical career, Lee had a comedy program called Radio Amador on Brazilian radio for nine months in 1986. That same year, Lee wrote three children's books and appeared in Brazilian movies and TV shows. In 1990, she started her own talk show, called TvLeeZão (a play on "televisão", the Portuguese word for television), on MTV Brasil. From 2002 to 2004, she hosted the Brazilian cable TV talk show Saia Justa. In 2005, she and her husband started a new talk show, called Madame Lee. She worked as actress in the 1989 film Better Days Ahead and made a brief cameo in the 2002 film Durval Discos. In 2008–09, she performed a new show called Pic Nic Tour. In 2010, she performed another new show called Etc...Tour, revisiting some forgotten songs from her long career. In 2011, she began to produce and record two new albums. The first one had then new unreleased songs, and the second one is called Bossa'n Movies where she continued the project started with Bossa'n Roll in 1991 and Bossa'n Beatles (Aqui, ali, em qualquer lugar).
In 2011, she contributed the track "Pistis Sophia" to the Red Hot Organization's most recent charitable album, Red Hot+Rio 2. The album was a follow-up to the 1996 Red Hot + Rio. Proceeds from the sales were donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS and related other health and social issues.
Personal life and death[edit]
Lee was married to Mutante Arnaldo Baptista from 1968 to 1972. In 1976, MPB singer Ney Matogrosso introduced her to guitarist Roberto de Carvalho, whom she married, and they had three children: Beto Lee, João Lee, and Antônio.
Lee died at her home in São Paulo on 8 May 2023, at the age of 75.[13] She had been in treatment for lung cancer for over a year before her death.[14] Brazilian musicians and celebrities, such as Lulu Santos and Xuxa Meneghel, and politicians including the President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and various of his ministers, lamented her death and exalted Lee.[15][16]