Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho (31 December 1947 – 8 May 2023), known as Rita Lee, was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, author, actress and television host. Dubbed the "Queen of Brazilian Rock", she became one of the most influential figures in the country's popular music. Renowned for her constant reinvention and versatility across musical and audiovisual production, Lee was a pioneer of both rock and pop in Brazil. She blended international and national styles, creating a distinctive hybrid sound. Her songs and performances celebrated pleasure and female agency, establishing her as a cornerstone of artistic resistance during the military dictatorship. Lee remains a major influence on multiple generations of artists, particularly women.
Born and raised in São Paulo, she began her musical career in 1963 with Tulio's Trio and later the Teenage Singers, which evolved into Os Seis. She rose to national prominence as vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for the tropicalist group Os Mutantes. Solo stardom came with the album Fruto Proibido (1975), recorded with the band Tutti Frutti and regarded as a landmark of Brazilian rock. Her popularity continued to grow through a string of successful albums that helped popularize pop music in Brazil, most of them created in partnership with her husband Roberto de Carvalho, with whom she co-wrote much of her repertoire. Key releases include Rita Lee (1979), Rita Lee (1980), Saúde (1981), and Rita Lee & Roberto de Carvalho (1982), the latter one of the best-selling albums in Brazilian music history. Her songs became staples on the charts.
Lee's visibility increased through year-end TV specials on TV Globo, such as Rita Lee Jones (1980), Rita Lee Jones (1981), O Circo (1982), Rita Lee e Roberto de Carvalho (1985), and Rita Lee Especial (1995). She also worked as a host on programs including TVLeezão (1991), Saia Justa (2002), and Madame Lee (2005). As a writer, she published 11 books during her lifetime and two posthumously, most notably her first autobiography, which sold 70 times the average print run of a book in Brazil in its first year. She also acted in films and series and hosted radio programs. Her acting work earned awards such as Best Male Performer at the Rio Cine Festival and the Troféu Calunga for Best Supporting Actress. A committed vegan, she advocated for animal rights, women's rights, and the LGBT community.
With more than 55 million records sold, Lee is the best-selling female singer in Brazilian history and one of the highest-selling Latin music artists of all time. A pioneer of large-scale national tours, she became the first Brazilian artist to tour gymnasiums and stadiums, drawing 500,000 spectators during the highly successful Tour Brasil 83; the Tour 87/88 enjoyed similar acclaim. Among her honors are 12 Brazilian Music Awards, four APCA Awards, three Troféus Imprensa, two Latin Grammys, the Shell Music Award, and an honorary award from the União Brasileira de Compositores (UBC). Rolling Stone Brasil also ranked her among the greatest Brazilian voices and artists of all time.
Early life and career beginnings
Rita Lee Jones was born on 31 December 1947 in São Paulo, the youngest daughter of Charles Fenley Jones, a Brazilian-born dentist of American descent—his Confederate ancestors from Alabama and Tennessee had settled in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste after the US Civil War—and Romilda Padula, a pianist of Italian origin from Molise. Her two older sisters were Mary Lee and Virgínia Lee Jones; their father gave all three daughters the compound middle name "Lee" in honor of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Although her parents initially intended to name her Bárbara after Saint Barbara, at the baptism they chose Rita to honour her maternal grandmother Clorinda, who was known as Rita.
Lee grew up in the middle-class Vila Mariana neighbourhood, where she lived until the birth of her first child. She later described the area as holding many of her fondest memories. She attended the French-Brazilian Liceu Pasteur, becoming fluent in Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, and Italian. In 1968 she briefly enrolled in the Social Communication course at the University of São Paulo alongside the future actress Regina Duarte, but dropped out the following year.
As a child she studied classical piano with Magda Tagliaferro. Initially she dreamed of becoming an actress or veterinarian; her father hoped she would follow him into dentistry. Her early musical tastes were shaped by both US rock and roll—particularly Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones—and the Brazilian classics her parents played at home, including João Gilberto, Cauby Peixoto, Angela Maria, Maysa Matarazzo, and Carmen Miranda.
In her teens Lee began writing songs and performing. She first sang in public with Tulio's Trio, then formed an all-female vocal group, the Teenage Singers, who appeared at school parties. In 1964 they merged with a male trio, the Wooden Faces, to create the Six Sided Rockers; the band soon changed its name to Os Seis and released a single. After three members left, Lee and brothers Arnaldo and Sérgio Dias Baptista continued as Os Bruxos. In 1966, shortly before their television debut on O Pequeno Mundo de Ronnie Von (TV Record), presenter Ronnie Von—prompted by a suggestion from producer Alberto Helena Júnior inspired by the science-fiction novel O Império dos Mutantes by Stefan Wul—proposed the name Os Mutantes. The trio immediately adopted it.
1966–72: Os Mutantes and early solo albums
For six years, Lee was a core member of the pioneering tropicalista band Os Mutantes, alongside Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Dias. She contributed lead vocals, flute, and percussion, while occasionally playing synthesizer, banjo, and autoharp. Lee also experimented with unconventional sound sources, such as a pest-control spray pump to create effects in the track "Le premier bonheur du jour", and served as the group's primary lyricist. In 1967, Os Mutantes backed Gilberto Gil at the III Festival de Música Popular Brasileira on TV Record, performing his composition "Domingo no parque".
The band released six studio albums between 1968 and 1972. Their self-titled debut (1968) is widely regarded as a landmark of Brazilian music, blending psychedelia, tropicalismo, and avant-garde elements to produce enduring hits including "A minha menina", "Dom Quixote", "Balada do louco", "2001 (Dois mil e um)", and "Ando meio desligado". Lee married bandmate Arnaldo Baptista in 1968; the couple separated in 1972, with their divorce finalized in 1977.
While still with Os Mutantes, Lee recorded two solo albums featuring backing from her bandmates. Build Up (1970), her debut, included several songs co-written with Arnaldo; it originated as the setlist for a private corporate event organized by the Fenit company in São Paulo. The album yielded her first solo single, "José", a Portuguese-language cover of Georges Moustaki's "Joseph" (previously recorded by Nara Leão). Her second effort, Hoje É o Primeiro Dia do Resto da Sua Vida (1972), was credited solely to Lee because Os Mutantes had already released an album that year, and their Philips contract prohibited additional releases under the band name. Os Mutantes performed and recorded the material, but only Lee appeared on the cover and received billing.
Tensions arose from the dissolution of her marriage and disagreements over the band's shift toward progressive rock. Lee was expelled from Os Mutantes by Arnaldo in 1972. Accounts of the departure vary, with some early reports suggesting she left voluntarily. Lee later described the moment in her 2016 autobiography Rita Lee: uma autobiografia:
My exit from the group happened in the classic style of "the groom is the last to know"—in this case, the bride. After spending the day out, I arrived at rehearsal to find a tense, heavy atmosphere. One would look away, another stared at the ceiling, fiddling with their instrument and such. Finally, Arnaldo broke the ice, took the floor, and informed me—not in these exact words, but the meaning was the same—that I was the corpse at this funeral. "We've decided that from now on, you're out of Os Mutantes because we're going in a progressive-virtuoso direction, and you don't have the chops as an instrumentalist." A spit in the face would have been less humiliating. Instead of falling to my knees, crying and begging forgiveness for being born a woman, I made a silent, elegant exit. I left the room in dramatic fashion, packed my bags, grabbed Danny (the dog), and adiós.