Fans of the late Brazilian rock star Rita Lee pay their last respects during her wake at the Planetarium in Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. According to a family statement, Rita Lee, 75, died at her home in Sao Paulo on Monday evening, and her cause of death wasn't immediately disclosed. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
SAO PAULO (AP) – Thousands of fans mourning the death of Brazil’s “Queen of Rock” lined up in the rain early Wednesday to join relatives of Rita Lee Jones at a wake for the singer inside a planetarium in Sao Paulo.
Rita Lee, as she was popularly known, died Monday at age 75.
Fans started lining up at 5 a.m. Wednesday in Ibapuera Park outside the planetarium, which Rita Lee wrote about in her memoirs and often visited. Images of the sky as it was on Dec. 31, 1947, the day Rita Lee was born, were displayed on the planetarium’s ceiling.
Grammy Award winner Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, two legends of Brazilian music, posted photos of themselves with Rita Lee, celebrating her unique personality as much as her art.
Rita Lee left a lasting mark with her irreverence, creativity and compositions containing messages that helped introduce Brazilian society to feminism. She was the author of hits such as “Ovelha Negra,” “Mania de Você” and “Now Only Missing You.”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also lamented Tuesday the loss of “one of the biggest and most brilliant names in Brazilian music.” He praised “an artist ahead of her time” and declared three days of mourning.
Her cause of death wasn’t immediately disclosed but she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021, which her son had said last year that she had defeated.
The wake was scheduled until evening. Her body was to be cremated.
