Lô Borges, icon of Brazilian music, has died at the age of 73. As reported by the Portuguese media Folha de S.Paulo, the musician had been hospitalized for an infection related to drug use, and after “fighting bravely for 17 days,” he died on Sunday.
Borges will be remembered above all for ‘Clube da Esquina’ (1972), his album with Milton Nascimento, one of the milestones of Brazilian popular music. That double album was titled with the name of the collective that Borges had founded when he was young, originating in Minas Gerais and which mixed MPB (Brazilian popular music) with rock, jazz, psychedelia and pop.
That same year, Borges released his first self-titled solo album, which was nicknamed “disco do tênis” for its iconic sneaker cover. Then Borges, who was born in 1952, was 19 or 20 years old. Borges had come into the world in a very musical family, and was the sixth of eleven siblings.
Borges was one of the most influential figures in Brazilian music for decades, and also internationally, inspiring Anglo-Saxon artists such as Alex Turner, vocalist of Arctic Monkeys, who cited ‘Aos Barões’ as one of the influences on ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’, Arctic Monkeys’ 2018 album.
