Gal Costa’s Final Performance Released as Posthumous Album

It premiered last October, the posthumous album that captured the final performance of the Brazilian voice of Gal Costa.

Titled As Várias Pontas de uma Estrela, the record brings together live recordings of her performance at the 2022 Coala Festival. This was her last show before her passing on November 9 of that same year, at the age of 77.

In addition to the songs already available on all streaming platforms, the label Biscoito Fino, responsible for the project, released an audiovisual of the performance, restored with artificial intelligence, on its YouTube channel.

In the year Gal would have turned 80, the release is part of a tribute to the singer. On October 1, an official TikTok profile for the artist was launched, aimed at bringing her legacy closer to new generations and reinforcing her importance in global music.

In a conversation with Yuvoice, John, an enthusiast of Gal’s work and curator of a digital archive dedicated to the singer, recalls that she always moved naturally between eras and sounds.

“Just like Caetano, Gal always knew how to renew herself and fit in with the new generation: in her choice of songs, her style, her thoughts, her ideology, and her behavior. In other words, Gal was always very current.”

For him, this attitude explains the singer’s connection with young audiences.

“She always wanted to be contemporary and spark ruptures, and she did that throughout her entire career. This rebellion in the form of art makes new generations identify with her ideas.”

The minimalist cover of As Várias Pontas de uma Estrela was conceived and created by Omar Salomão.

The real star of the artwork are Gal’s striking red lips, part of the singer’s visual identity and present in other works such as Fa-Tal – Gal a Todo Vapor (1971), Água Viva (1978), Gal Tropical (1979), and Profana (1984), as well as the compilation Minha Voz, Minha Vida (2000).

Tim Bernardes, who shared the stage with Gal in the performance of “Vapor Barato,” recalls the magnitude of the show.

“That show was different. Something happened, everyone was really electrified. It was the first time I played live with Gal. In the footage, you can see that I can’t hold back my smile. There was a rock and roll vibe, which was how Gal won me over when I first discovered her albums from the turn of the 1960s to the 1970s. I’m happy to know all of this will be available. It’s a show I’m very honored and happy to have been part of.”

The album brings together 20 tracks in total, mixing the singer’s own hits with reinterpretations of other major names in Brazilian music, such as Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, and Gilberto Gil.

Check the tracklist of As Várias Pontas de uma Estrela below:

• Fé Cega, Faca Amolada
• Hotel das Estrelas
• Divino Maravilhoso
• Dom de Iludir
• Quando Você Olha pra Ela
• Palavras no Corpo
• Nada Mais (Lately)
• Paula e Bebeto
• Desafinado
• A História de Lilly Braun
• Açaí
• Lua de Mel
• Sorte
• Como 2 e 2 (feat. Rubel)
• Tigresa
• Negro Amor
• Vapor Barato (feat. Tim Bernardes)
• Baby
• Um Dia de Domingo
• Brasil

Importance of Gal Costa for the global music industry

The muse of the Tropicália movement was one of the main forces responsible for spreading the avant-garde spirit that blended elements of Northeastern Brazilian culture with international rock influences.

Especially during her time as part of Tropicália, her musicality reflected diverse influences: first through the transition from the Northeast to the Southeast of Brazil, then through the international references absorbed by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil during their exile in Europe under the military dictatorship.

Her musical trajectory had an impact that went beyond Brazilian borders, with tours in the United States and Europe, as well as performances at festivals such as Montreux in Switzerland.

After her passing in 2022, The New York Times described her as “one of the greatest singers in the history of Brazil and the world,” highlighting the power of her voice on a global scale.

Gal Costa was the only Brazilian female singer to appear in the ranking of the 200 greatest singers of all time, published by Rolling Stone in 2023, placing 90th.

She is also, to this day, the only Brazilian figure with a photograph displayed in the Carnegie Hall Hall of Fame.

In an exclusive interview with Yuvoice, cultural producer Sofia Gianfelice highlights the artist’s symbolic strength.

“Precisely because she was a sex symbol and possessed a unique personality and posture, my perception of her as an artist only grew stronger, because I believe an artistic personality shouldn’t be based solely on musicality, but also on the body and everything that makes up a human being in all their complexity.”

For John, this attitude expanded the singer’s artistic power and turned her into a symbol of courage.

“The freedom with which she explored her voice, her body, her style, and her stage presence always showed that art and attitude can walk together. Freedom in Brazilian culture is owed in large part to Gal’s artistic boldness and the movements she was part of.”

Gal Costa’s figure holds an extremely strong representational role in Brazil, being one of the most versatile and inspiring artists for new names in the music scene. This is especially due to the fact that she became a symbol of autonomy and sexuality during the years of the military dictatorship.

The artist always kept her romantic life private, but her aesthetic stance and her freedom from gender conventions made her, over the decades, an important reference for the LGBTQIAP+ movement, at a time when such figures were rare in Brazilian public life.

All the courage that marked her trajectory takes on new form with the release of As Várias Pontas de uma Estrela, which goes beyond a posthumous record and asserts itself as a historical document immortalizing the final performance of one of Brazil’s greatest voices.