International music icon, Sergio Mendes dead after battling long-term COVID

Music legend Sergio Mendes died Thursday September 5th 2024 after battling the side effects of long-term COVID-19 over the last several months. He was 83. Mendes died in Los Angeles with his wife and musical partner for the past 54 years, Gracinha Leporace Mendes by his side, along with their loving children, according to a post made on the singer’s Instagram. The musician was known as being “one of the most internationally successful Brazilian artists of all time,” according to the post. He recorded more than 35 albums many of which became gold or platinum. “Mendes, a three-time Grammy Award winner and Oscar nominee, leaves us with an incredible musical legacy from more than six decades of a unique sound …,” the post read. His last performance was in November 2023, when his concerts sold out in Paris, London and Barcelona. NPR reported in 2020 that Mendes helped initiate the bossa nova movement and enhanced the popularity of Brazilian music through his band, Brazil ‘66. Fans might be most familiar with the artist’s top song on Spotify, “Mas Que Nada” which has nearly 23 million views on the app. Overall, Mendes has 5.6 million monthly listeners.  Antonio Jobim, a Brazilian composer who worked with Mendes on an album in 1976 responded to the announcement of Mendes’ death on Instagram. “Thanks for everything Sergio Mendes,” the composer said. Mendes was born in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro’s sister city, and studied classical music at a conservatory before joining jazz groups. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began playing Bossa Nova as the genre was heating up in Rio’s nightclub scene with Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and others. In 1962, they traveled to New York for a Bossa Nova festival at Carnegie Hall. During the trip, Cannonball Adderley invited Mendes to collaborate on the album “Cannonball Adderley and The Bossa Rio Sextet,” leading to his first American record, “The Swinger from Rio,” after signing with Atlantic Records.