These famous brazilian stars have left us

23 may 2025 : Sebastião Salgado (81, photographer)

The famous documentary photographer is maybe best known for his participation in the movie « The salt of the earth », directed by Wim Wenders and his son Juliano Salgado.

Salgado’s impressive works reflect environmental and social conditions around the world. The LA Times describes his aesthetics as follows :

« His style is marked by black-and-white imagery, rich tonality, and emotionally charged scenarios. He had a particular interest in impoverished communities. » (Mauricio Savare, LA Times)

The artist’s visual approach was sometimes criticized as « exploiting human suffering ». The Brazilian commented this accusation in a very keen-witted way :

“They say I was an ‘aesthete of misery’ and tried to impose beauty on the poor world. But why should the poor world be uglier than the rich world? The light here is the same as there. The dignity here is the same as there. I was not born here (in Europe). I came from the third world. When I was born, Brazil was a developing country. The pictures I took, I took from my side, from my world, from where I come. »  (S. Salgado, interview with The Guardian in 2024)

Sebastião Salgado was born in 1944 in the Minas Gerais region. As he and his wife Lélia, which he had met at the age of 19, were part of a critical political group during the military dictatorship period of Brazil, both moved to Paris in 1969.

Having earned degrees in economy from brazilian and french universities, Salgado worked initially for the World Bank and the International Coffee Organization (which is supervised by the UN). His trips to african coffee plantations triggered his interest in photography. Subsequently Salgado became a professional photographer and one of the stars of the agency Magnum Photos. In the 1980ies he shot some iconic pictures that showed the famine in Ethiopia or an assassination attempt against president Ronald Reagan.

The Amazon rainforest was a particular focus in the life of the artist. Besides presenting it in his images, Salgado founded the NGO « Instituto Terra », which realizes projects for sustainable development in Brazil. He founded as well a photo agency called « Amazonas Images ».

Salgado told to Forbes Brazil, that during his photo journeys he often put his camera aside to sit down and cry, as the scenes he was confronted to were too dramatic to deal with. In the 1990ies he covered the Gulf War and the genocide in Ruanda.

The type of photojournalism he practiced exposed him to various dangers. In Mozambique his car ran over a landmine in the 1970ies. In Indonesia he contracted a persistent form of Malaria, which later caused the leukemia he died from in 2025.

Sebastião Salgado is mourned by his wife Lélia, his two sons (one of which suffers from the Down Syndrome) and his grandchildren.

The widely acclaimed photographer, whose expositions had names such as « Exodus » or « Genesis », received many international awards and honours. He became an honorary doctor of the brazilian university of Espirito Santo, received the Peace Price of the German Book Trade in 2019 (with a laudation by Wim Wenders), was introduced to the french Académie des Beaux-Arts (by Yann Arthus-Bertrand), and became Knight of the french Légion d’honneur.

5 september 2024 : Sergio Mendes (83, Musician)

After the passing of Gal Costa in 2022 (see the timeline below), Brazil has lost another great musician.

Sergio Mendes was born in 1941 in Niteroi, a city close to Rio de Janeiro. He got a classical piano education and had a major musical awakening at the age of 15, when he discovered Dave Brubeck and other jazz musicians.

Already in 1962 Mendes played Bossa Nova in New York’s Carnegie Hall, and in 1964 he moved to California. During the Sixties he found as well his own distinctive Latin-Pop-Formula – with his band « Brasil 66 » that featured two female singers.

The brazilian musician worked for american TV shows, he played two times in the White House (under the presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan), and he made international tours – either with his own group, or as the pianist of Frank Sinatra.

Among his most famous songs are » The look of love (composed by Burt Bacharach) » and « Mas que nada « (a composition of Jorge Ben). He recorded this last song as well with the pop group « Black Eyed Peas » in 2006. The three time Grammy Winner published 35 albums in total. Still in 2023 he gave concerts in Europe and Asia.  

The musician had five children from two marriages. His second wife Gracinha Mendes, with whom he lived together for 54 years, was as well one of his singers.  

Sergio Mendes died in Los Angeles at the age of 83. According to the New York Times the cause of death was « Long Covid ». His Covid vaccination status was not communicated.

Click here to order the music of Sergio Mendes !

29 december 2022 : Pelé (82, Soccer star and Politician)

Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born in 1940 in Brazil’s Minas Gerais region, and grew up in the city Bauru in the state of São Paulo. The origin of his nickname « Pelé » is unclear.

In 1956 he started his career with the Santos Football Club in Brazil, where he would stay until 1974. Santos is a city 45 kilometer south of São Paulo and has Brazil’s biggest freight seaport. The striker with excellent dribbling skills became quickly very successful. Apart from winning six brazilian championships, he is the only football player who became three times World Champion – in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

From 1970 until 1974 Pelé studied physical education at the university of Santos, parallel to his soccer career. In 1975 he joined the soccer club Cosmos New York in the USA, earning 1,7 million USD per year, according to CNN. There he played together with the german football star Franz Beckenbauer and won the North American Soccer League Chamionship of 1977.

The number of Pelé’s goals varies according to the sources. NBC New York speaks of 1281 goals in 1363 matches. What is undeniable is, that he was the first international football star and a great ambassador for his home country Brazil. In 1999 Pelé was declared « Athlete of the century » by the International Olympic Committee.

After his football career he was a goodwill ambassador for the UNICEF, and from 1995 to 1998 he was the minister for sports in Brazil.

Since 2012 the football star had had various health problems, including a failed hip surgery, kidney and prostate problems. He died in the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo due to multiple organ failure caused by colon cancer.  

The Brazilian was married three times. He is survived by his third wife, his mother (100 years old at the moment of his death), and six of his seven children.

All big current football players, like Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé, expressed their condolences on social media. A public wake was organised in the football stadium of the Santos FC in Brazil. Then a funeral procession brought his coffin from the Urbano Caldeira stadium to the Necropole Ecumenica cemetery, which is situated 500 metres northwest of the stadium. President Jair Bolsonaro announced three days of national mourning.

Videos, books and T-Shirts about Pelé can be found by this link.

9 november 2022 : Gal Costa (77, Singer)

One of the greatest brazilian singers has died. Maria da Graça Penna Burgos was born in 1945 in Salvador de Bahia.

Since 1964 she was in the music business. Initially she was associated with the so-called « Tropicalia movement » of this decade, together with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethânia. Tropicalia meant on the musical level a mix of traditional and psychedelic approaches.

Over the course of her career she recorded 35 albums. She paid tribute to her natal region Bahia with its african traditions and Candomblé rituals, by the song « Oração de mãe menininha », she sang « Brasil » on stage with naked breasts, and she worked with all other important brazilian musicians such as Antonio Carlos Jobim and Chico Buarque.

After her passing the president of the university of Bahia published a note stating the « loss of one of the best singers of all time ». President Lula da Silva (who started in office on 1st january 2023) paid tribute to her on Twitter by sharing an eulogy and a photo that showed Costa and him together.

The death of Gal Costa is surrounded by some macabre aspects. Initially, no cause of death was communicated. There was only the information, that she had had a nose surgery. Some months later, brazilian newspapers revealed that the singer died from a heart attack, and that she had as well head an neck cancer (câncer de cabeça e pescoço). According to the newspaper G1 her son has requested an exhumation, in order to relocate the corpse to a cemetery in another city.

Gal Costa died in São Paulo. She is survived by her companion and her son.

Don’t hesitate to order the music of this important brazilian artist by clicking here.

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