Legendary Singer Dies After 9-Month Hospitalization: Nana Caymmi Was 84

Grammy-winning Brazilian singer Nana Caymmi has died.

Caymmi passed away on Thursday, May 1 of multiple organ failure in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Casa de Saúde São José, in Rio de Janeiro, where she’d been hospitalized for nine months, her brother, fellow musician Danilo Caymmi, told CNN Brasil. She was 84.

Born Dinahir Tostes Caymmi on April 29, 1941 to Brazilian music royalty – her father was famous composer Dorival Caymmi and her mother was singer Stella Mari – Caymmi followed in her family’s footsteps, rising to become an iconic voice in the Brazilian music scene. She made her professional debut in 1960 performing a duet with her father on his track “Acalanto,” a song he’d composed as a lullaby for her that appeared on his album for Odeon Records. She went on to release her own debut record, Nana, just five years later, and achieved breakthrough recognition the following year when her performance of “Saveiros,” a song composed by her brother, Dori Caymmi, and Nelson Motta, won first place at the Festival Internacional da Canção.

Caymmi’s musical presence continued to rise over the following decades, the singer releasing a total of 31 studio albums, including 1993’s gold-selling album Bolero. Her final album, Nana, Tom, Vinicius, released in 2020. Caymmi in 1976 received the prestigious Villa-Lobos Trophy for Best Singer of the Year, awarded by the Brazilian Association of Record Producers. In 2004, she won a Latin Grammy for Best Samba/Pagoda Album for Para Caymmi, by Nana, Dori, and Danilo, and followed it with three other nominations in 2014 for Caymmi, 2019 for Nana Caymmi Canta Tito Madi, and 2021 for Nana, Tom, Vinícius.

Over the past decade Caymmi faced numerous health setbacks, per The Rio Times. In 2016, she was forced to take a break from live performances after she underwent surgery for a stomach tumor. In August of last year, she was hospitalized for treatment of cardiac arrhythmia, according to O Maringá reported, and remained hospitalized until her passing earlier this month. Following her death, her brother Danilo denied reports that Caymmi died as the result of an opioid overdose, telling CNN Brasil that his sister developed a sacral bedsore, a wound at the base of her spine, that progressed into osteomyelitis, a serious bone infection. Although Caymmi underwent a procedure to close the wound, Caymmi went into septic shock and passed away on May 1, just two days after her 84th birthday.