Brazilian singer and composer Joao Donato, one of the pioneers of bossa nova, died on Monday, July 17, at the age of 88 in Rio de Janeiro, his entourage announced. “Today, the paradise of composers woke up happier: Joao Donato went there to play his magnificent melodies,” reads a statement posted on his Instagram account.

The cause of his death was not specified, but he had been hospitalized recently with pneumonia and had been intubated since last week, according to local media.

Singer, composer, pianist, accordionist and musical arranger, Joao Donato was less in the spotlight than other icons like Joao Gilberto or Tom Jobim, but he was a reference for a large number of Brazilian artists.

The wake will be held at the Municipal Theater in Rio de Janeiro, the city where he grew up, after moving as a child with his family from his hometown of Rio Branco, in the Amazon state of Acre (north). It was in Rio that he began his musical career, becoming a figure of bossa nova, a musical genre that revolutionized Brazilian music at the end of the 1950s, giving it a worldwide audience.

versatile artist

He is the author of legendary compositions, such as Minha Saudade (1962) with Joao Gilberto, the emblematic singer and guitarist of bossa nova, who died in 2019. His first album, Cha Dancing (1956), was produced by Tom Jobim .

A versatile artist, Joao Donato never wanted to confine himself to a single musical genre. “I’m not bossa-nova, samba, jazz, rumba or forró. In fact, I am all of that at the same time, “he said in 2014, in an interview with the daily O Globo.

His talent has been recognized worldwide, with numerous international tours, and he lived for ten years in the United States.

“He was one of the geniuses of Brazilian music. We have lost today one of our best composers, one of the most creative (…), who marked the history of music in our country with his compositions that have traveled the world”, reacted on Twitter the president Brazilian, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

In June, Brazil had already lost another bossa nova icon, Astrud Gilberto, the interpreter of Girl from Ipanema.