The queue of fans and admirers to say goodbye to singer Rita Lee, known as the queen of rock, started early and lasted throughout the day at the planetarium at Ibirapuera Park, in São Paulo. The wake opened at around 10 am and, throughout the ceremony, fans, family and friends of the singer passed by the place. Among them, television presenter Serginho Groisman, former soccer player Walter Casagrande and singer Supla. That night, the artist will be cremated in a private ceremony. Singer Paula Lima said, upon leaving, that her first memory of Rita is with the song Ovelha Negra, when she was still a child. “That awakened in me the desire to be like her. I just saw that colorful, crazy woman and I said ‘who is this woman, why is she like that?’. She just might not even be from this planet, but she gave us this gift of celebrate this very beautiful existence. Now we have to celebrate this beautiful legacy”, he said. Funeral for singer and songwriter Rita Lee at the Ibirapuera Planetarium – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil Plastic artist Antonio Peticov, a friend of the singer since she was 17, referred to Rita as “a dear little sister”. Always in touch with her, Peticov highlighted her jokes and the way she joked about every situation. Impressed by the affection of the fans, many who came from far away to pay homage, he emphasized the different situations during the ceremony. “Everything has happened. We had two Elvis Presleys, we had a guy wanting to resurrect her. I love Rita a lot, there’s so much she left behind. It’s nice that her work only increases and it’s very interesting to see how many children are coming here and knowing the songs by heart.” Journalist and presenter Astrid Fontenelle classified Rita Lee’s work and career as a complete success, phase by phase. She praised Rita’s way of talking and reaching all women, of all age groups, accompanying people’s lives and issues according to each period. “She is tailor-made for all the guidelines that I have been following in the last 11 years of the Saia Justa program. Rita is a source of inspiration for us as women and for us as journalists. Every song of hers is an agenda for us in some way and she was a precursor when we didn’t have the courage to talk about some issues.” Rita’s son, João Lee, said that being alive at the same time as her was a privilege, mainly due to his construction of a history and a universe so gigantic that it is not limited to music. “She was a conjuncture of factors that were so difficult to have. She sings well, writes music, composes, designs scenography, makes clothes, writes books. She was always very unique and a willpower to accomplish all of this. It was very difficult to imagine at the time that all this started to happen, with dictatorship, with everything, but she always had that strength.” João Lee emphasized Rita’s greatness, remembering the number of people who were impacted by her works and ideas. And he highlighted the fact that he was the son of the patroness of freedom, as she referred to herself. “It’s spectacular, special. Being able to live day by day with such an enlightened person, with such a different mindset and so far ahead of everything, was an honor for me”, he said, moved. Queue in front of the Ibirapuera Planetarium for Rita Lee’s wake – Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil Publicist Luiz Felipe, 32, said he wanted to go to the farewell because he grew up listening to his mother talk about Rita Lee, studying her story at the time of censorship. He said he was a Corinthians fan and had in his memory Rita’s passage through the Corinthian Democracy movement, along with the players Sócrates and Casagrande, a moment he considers incredible. The movement emerged in the 1980s, led by a group of Corinthians players who demonstrated against the military dictatorship. “She is also a link between me and my mother, because the first CD I got from my mother was Rita Lee ao Vivo 1999, when I was 9 years old. She told me the history of the songs and how she couldn’t sing some songs because my grandfather I beat her because of the lyrics. That didn’t stop her from singing. That was what Rita went through, the importance of being a woman and having her place of speech and resistance”, he said. The singer was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021 and has since treated the disease. The family confirmed the death on her social media this Tuesday (9). She died at her residence, in São Paulo, late on Monday night. “Surrounded by all the love and her family, as she always wanted,” the family statement said.
Agência Brasil
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