Singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, actress, writer and Brazilian activist, check out the curiosities about Rita Lee, the Queen of Rock.
Rita Lee was an icon of Brazilian music, our Queen of Rock, born on December 31, 1947, in São Paulo, under the name Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho. Brazilian rock singer, composer and writer, and one of the most recognized national artists in Brazil and in the world. He left everyone on the planet saddest with his passing on May 8, 2023.
Here we bring some curiosities about Rita Lee, so we can remember and know a little more about this incredible personality that, for 60 years, sang and charmed fans around the globe.
Biography of Rita Lee
Born in a middle-class family in a São Paulo of the 40s, in the neighborhood of Vila Mariana, Rita even entered the USP Social Communication course in 1968, in the class that Regina Duarte also studied, but left the course the following year. He began to dedicate himself to music, becoming a reference with regard to national rock.
One of the curiosity about Rita Lee is that she changed her date of birth, decreasing one year. However, she said she was not bothered by appearance, respecting the wrinkles. In addition, for those who have had their hair of several different colors, at the end of life they had whites.
– Childhood and youth
During her childhood she took piano lessons with Magdalena Tagliaferro, a classical musician. She wanted to be a film actress, perhaps a veterinarian or a dentist, as her father wanted to, but she never thought she would become a rock singer.
Already in adolescence he became interested in music and his first international influences were Elvis Presley, Paul Anka, The Beatles, Rolling Stones. But he also listened to Brazilian music by influence of his parents, the main examples of which are Angela Maria, João Gilberto, Cauby Peixoto, Carmen Miranda, Emilinha Borba and Maysa.
The artist, who was educated at the Franco-Brazilian school Lyceu Pasteur, was a polyglot and spoke fluent Portuguese, French, English, Italian and Castilian.
– Relationships by Rita Lee
In 1964 Rita was part of a trio of singers when she met a group of singers. From then on, both bands became one, which years later became only Rita Lee, Arnaldo Batista and Sérgio Dias. In 1968 Rita and Arnaldo got married, but the relationship did not end well. According to her own, in an interview with Folha de São Paulo in 1995, she discovered that her ex-husband was betraying her when she opened the door of the room and meeting him with another woman, almost completely naked. In 1972 the couple divorced and it was not long before Rita was expelled from The Mutantes (the group of which the three were part) by her ex. In the same year the singer appeared on Hebe Camargo’s show and tore her marriage certificate.
After leaving the Mutants, Rita was part of the Tutti Frutti group. It was at this time that he met Roberto Carvalho, who would become his companion until the day of his deaths. According to his autobiography, released in 2016, the musician worked with Ney Matogrosso, who was the one who presented them.
– Marriage with Roberto de Carvalho
Rita Lee and Roberto joined in 1976, but the marriage was only made official 20 years later in 1996. During the first years of this relationship, the artist had many problems with drugs and alcohol, being hospitalized many times because of this. It got to the point where she was arrested in 1977 while pregnant with her first child for marijuana possession. However, the couple remained for 47 years. With Roberto he had three sons: Robert, John and Antonio.
The first, whose stage name is Beto Lee, followed in the footsteps of his parents, being today one of the members of the Titans group, in addition to having his solo career. The second, John, is a DJ and producer. The third son, Antonio, is a visual artist.
Rita Lee and Roberto worked together throughout the wedding time, both producing songs and on stage. Even the song “Mania de You” was written for your great love.
– Health problems and death
In 1996, Rita suffered an accident at the place where she lived, falling from the second floor balcony. She broke her jaw and needed titanium pins. With the success of the surgery, and being able to return to his career, Lee, if known, would have committed to abandoning drugs and drink for good, something he only got fully 10 years later, according to the singer herself in her appearance on the program Fantástico, after becoming a grandmother for the first time.
In May 2012 he had suffered from Bipolar Disorder.
In 2021, at the age of 73, she was diagnosed during a routine examination with lung cancer. The following year doctors did not detect any more signs of the disease in the artist’s body, but in February 2023 Rita was admitted to Albert Einstein hospital, in an extremely delicate state. Her husband spoke out, warning that the hospitalization was for exams and evaluations and asking for privacy. In March the singer’s son reported that she was better, to reassure fans, and in the same month the artist returned home.
On May 8, 2023, her health was the worst and Rita Lee died. The Queen of Brazilian Rock died in her apartment, surrounded by her family. It was then announced that the funeral would be opened to public and would take place at the Planetarium of Ibirapuera on May 10.
Career of Rita Lee
His interest in music came into his teens, when he began writing songs and, at the age of 16, formed the trio Teenage Singers with two friends. The three made small amateur performances at school parties. Rita Lee’s first major performance, with her band, was on Record radio, where she and her friends sang Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, a hit by The Shirelles.
In 1964 they met the male trio Wooden Faces, to whom they joined forming the Six Sided Rockers, a band that would later be called The Six, which recorded a single with two songs. Eventually 3 members left, left only Rita, Arnaldo and Sérgio. They decided that the name of the band would be The Wizards, but at a suggestion by Ronnie Von, they were renamed The Mutants.
– The Mutants
In 1966, the founders of the Tropicalism movement, which included the band Os Mutantes, adopted an experimental and eclectic approach that mixed rock, psychedelia, traditional Brazilian music and elements of classical music, which made them well known. Other notable artists who joined the movement were Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé, Gal Costa and Gilberto Gil. The movement had a strong political engagement and challenged the repression of the Brazilian military regime and, although brief, Tropicalism had a significant impact on the country’s Brazilian culture and popular music.
The band has released several acclaimed albums, participated in several important festivals and is considered one of the most important bands in the history of Brazilian music. The band separated in 1978, but their legacy continued to inspire Brazilian and international artists.
So much so that, in 1993, Kurt Cobain asked, in an interview, citing Arnaldo, that the band be revived, because he had heard the first records and found the songs very good.
Sérgio, Arnaldo and Rita Lee also met as Os Mutantes for some commemorative shows in 2012.
– Solo career
Still at the time of the group Os Mutantes Rita released two albums “solo”, both with the participation of bandmates. The first album was the repertoire of a show of a fashion fair in São Paulo, and everyone should have released the second album. However, the band was unable to record another album due to the contract, so Rita Lee was the only one to sign it.
Already after leaving from The Mutantes and participating in the duo Cilibrinas do Éden and the group Tutti Frutti, Lee went on a solo career, releasing several hits and, in 1993, the singer released the album Rita Lee, which ended up attracting the attention of the British band the Rolling Stones, who invited her to open their shows in Brazil.
Another curiosity about the Queen of Rock: In 2013 she decided she would allow herself to “her aged with dignity”, as she said, stops dyeing her hair red and ending her musical career.
– Partnership with Roberto de Carvalho
In 1977 the Brazilian rock singer already expressed her displeasure with the radical rock and MPB, because she did not consider herself a radical rocker. The following year Lee and Roberto began working together on some projects, starting to create records and do shows together more frequently and inaugurating the superpop phase.
Together they have launched pearls of music as Mania de Você, Sweet Vampire, Sorry the Auê, etc.
The couple continued working together until Rita ended her career.
– On the radio
In 1986, after her contract with Som Livre, Rita dedicated herself to the program Radio Amador, which she wrote and performed under the name of Lita Ree, and where she played many different characters.
– On television
The artist was wonderful in everything she proposed, and television would be no different. He had appearances in Os Trapalhões, in the soap operas Top Model and Vamp and even in Sai de Baixo, where he made the character Scarlet Antibes, cousin of Caco Antibes (Miguel Falabella).
The Queen of Rock also had a program called TVleezão, on MTV in 1991. In addition, between 2002 and 2004 she co-hosted the Saia Justa program on the GNT channel.
In 2005, also at GNT, estev and ahead of the talk show Madame Lee, in addition to a participation in Netflix’s Laerte-se documentary.
As a singer she also had many songs in soundtracks and novel openings.
– Books by Rita Lee
In 1986 Rita published her first children’s book and by the year 1992 had already released 4, having a rat scientist, Dr. Alex as the main character. In 2013 he released the book Storynhas, illustrated by Laerte.
Here is a list of the books released
- Alex (1986)
- Alex and the Kings of Angra (1988)
- Alex in the Amazon (1990)
- Alex and the Quartz Oracle (1992)
- The Storys (2013)
- Rita Lee: an autobiography (2016)
- Dropz (2017)
- FavoRita (2018)
- Friend Ursa: a sad story, but with happy ending (2019)
- Rita Lee: other autobiography (2023)
Controversies involving Rita Lee
Arrest in the time of the Dictatorship
In 1976 the dictatorship was a heavy campaign of repression for everyone who opposed the regime, and this included everyone. There was no distinction.
During the period, Rita Lee wrote lyrics about sex, pleasure and political criticism, which she said was the reason authorities sentenced her to house arrest when she was 3-month-old pregnant with her first child. The singer says she did not use drugs during pregnancy and that, therefore, the drug was not hers, but somehow was in her home. Perhaps from some friend who had taken to a party… Despite this, he said that he had used drugs at other times of his life, but did not recommend that young people do it.
Output from The Mutants
Another controversy that has dragged on for years about the most famous Brazilian rock singer.
Rita Lee stated that s s ran deviated to an expulsion from Arnaldo, a fact confirmed by his own in 2007, and exposed the machismo of the time.
The justification given in that then was that the young woman did not have virtuosity for instruments, supposedly so necessary for the band’s new musical endeavor: The Progressive Rock.
Curiosities about Rita Lee in her two Autobiography
That the life of the Queen of Rock was full of polemics and controversy is no secret to anyone, but the singer made a point of giving richness of details of all the facts in two autobiographies, full of curiosities about this personality that was Rita Lee.
The abuse suffered at the age of 6, the youth watered by sex, drugs and Rock’n’roll, the realization that her life needed to change and all that brings, as well as the illness (exposed in the second book) with the acid language that only she owned.
Process by military police
In 2012 Rita Lee was in Aracaju, doing what would be her farewell show of the stages, when she saw a group of police officers allegedly acting truculently against fans of the singer. After many offensive screams, the artist suggested that they should go “smoking one.”
Still very angry, she remembered the times of the dictatorship and said she was not afraid after what lived at that time.
When he got off the stage, the police took Rita Lee, who was 67 years old at the time, to the police station. She was released after giving testimony.
Thanks to a lawsuit for moral damages, the artist was forced to pay R $5,000 to a sergi-Spanish police officer.
Lowered in controversial pants
Also in 2012, at the Green Move Festival, held in Brasilia, Rita promoted her new album Reza. When he finished his musical performance, he turned his back on the audience, lowered his pants and quickly showed the ass to everyone.
“Showing your ass on stage is an act of love, of the time that rocker had a bad guy, you weren’t born yet,” she said on Twitter in response to a fan. Shortly after, the singer reported in another tweet that she had lost sponsorship from a bank.
Controversy involving Jair Bolsonaro
Rita Lee loved Twitter, it was her favorite place to shoot any and all kinds of themes. Including an alleged case he had with former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Rita said that the former president and she had an affair, but that ended because he was not very close. The singer was known for inventing stories on social networks and mixing them with real ones. Also by giving acidic opinions on all the topics that crossed his path.
It also caused an internet fire by calling his tumor “Jair.”
So if you liked this story about the Queen of Brazilian Rock, read also: Discover 20 curiosities about singer Billie Eilish.
Sources: La Vanguardia, El Mundo, MetropolitanaFM, JC UOL, Metropoles, Diario de Pernambuco, E-Biography, RadioJornal, Observatory of the Famous, El País, DCI
