Dead at the age of 33, victim of starvation and cardiac arrest, Tuca (1944 – 1978) has her work analyzed in a book written by Renato Gonçalves Disclosure ? BOOK REVIEW Title: Tuca – The lesbian singer exiled from history Author: Renato Gonçalves Rating: ? ? ? 1/2 ? Little is said about Tuca, the singer's artistic name, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and music producer from São Paulo Valeniza Zagni da Silva (October 17, 1944 – May 8, 1978). But even less is known about the work of the artist who died 48 years ago, aged just 33, victim of cardiac arrest caused by starvation. It is said that this starvation was a consequence of the fatphobia suffered by Tuca, who had undergone a severe regime to adapt to the market's aesthetic standards. Since it was revealed in 1962, Tuca was commonly mentioned in the media with explicit references to her full body shape. So much so that the last chapter of Tuca's succinct and recently released biography is called “The fatphobia that kills a work and an artist”. The first title in the collection “Vidas kidnapped”, organized by César Braga Pinto, “Tuca – The lesbian singer exiled from history” is a pocket book recently released by the publisher O Sexo da Palavra. And, in this pocket, there is a narrative in which the author, researcher Renato Gonçalves, may surprise those who are unaware of the trajectory of the artist who released three albums – “Meu eu” (1965), “Tuca” (1968) and “Drácula, I love you” (1974), an album that would become cult in niches and is considered Tuca's masterpiece – among important works done in Paris with the singers Nara Leão (1942 – 1980) and Françoise Hardy (1944 – 2024). In 1971, self-exiled in the capital of France to escape the repression of the military regime that stifled freedoms in Brazil, Tuca made arrangements for the album that marked Nara's phonographic adherence to the bossa nova songbook, “Ten years later”, and shaped as producer and arranger one of Hardy's best-known albums, “La question”, signing with her French partner songs such as the song that gave the album its name. Previously, in Brazil, Tuca gained prominence in the festival era when he defended the song “Porta éstandarte”, by Geraldo Vandré (in partnership with Fernando Lona) in 1966, contributing to giving visibility to Vandré, with whom Tuca was a partner in the composition “O Cavaleiro”, also presented by the artist at a 1966 festival. More than collecting and compiling Tuca's biographical data in the book, Renato Gonçalves' merit is to analyze, in perspective, the relevant contribution of an artist who, in the leaden years of the Brazilian dictatorship, built and propagated a pioneering homoerotic discourse in songs such as “Girl” and “Sorvete”, both composed by Tuca in partnership with the artist Jeannette Priolli and presented on the aforementioned album “Drácula, I love you”. A polyglot and virtuoso guitarist, Tuca acted on several fronts of Brazilian music and, as Gonçalves shows in the book, he did not always receive due credit for so many relevant contributions, having generally acted on the margins of the market after returning to Brazil in the 1970s. The fact that the album “Drácula, I love you” continues to be unavailable on streaming platforms – on which you can only hear the second of the singer’s three albums, “Tuca” from 1968 – contributes to maintaining the artist’s erasure, alleviated somewhat by the friendly and timely pocket book that inaugurates the “Vidas kidnapped” collection. Cover of the book 'Tuca – The lesbian singer exiled from history', by Renato Gonçalves Disclosure