Brazilian musician Rita Lee died on Monday at the age of 75 after suffering from cancer. On Wednesday, the public funeral took place in São Paulo. As a member of the band "Os Mutantes", Lee celebrated several successes from the sixties onwards and wrote several albums that became Brazilian music classics and attracted international attention.
Lee was considered one of the most important songwriters of the Tropicália movement, which emerged in the sixties and challenged the Brazilian military regime and its censorship. She did not see herself as the "queen of rock", but as the "patron saint of freedom" – including the freedom that had to be fought for as a woman in the male-dominated music world.
Her directness and sarcasm are also evident in her autobiography, published in 2016, in which she wrote about her childhood, her career and her drug problems. In the book, she also anticipated her death. "I can already imagine what words of affection will be uttered by those who loathe me," she wrote, adding her epitaph: "She was never a good role model, but she was a good person."