The Brazilian singer and composer Joao Donato, one of the pioneers of bossa nova, died on Monday at the age of 88 in Rio de Janeiro, as announced by his environment.

"Today, the composer's paradise woke up happier: Joao Donato went there to play his magnificent melodies," reads a statement posted on the musician's official Instagram account.

The statement does not specify the cause of death, but the singer had recently been admitted to hospital for 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 limelight than other icons such as Joao Gilberto or Tom Jobim, but he was a reference for a large number of Brazilian artists.

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The wake will take place at the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, the city where he grew up, after having moved with his family as a child from his hometown of Rio Branco, in the Amazonian state of Acre (north).

It was in Rio that he began his musical career, becoming a leading figure of bossa nova, the musical genre that revolutionized Brazilian music in the late 1950s, giving him a worldwide audience.

He is the author of legendary compositions such as 'Minha saudade' (1962) with Joao Gilberto, emblematic singer and guitarist of bossa nova, who died in 2019.

His first album, 'Cha Dançante' (1956), with his group Joao Donato e seu Conjunto, was produced by Tom Jobim.

A multifaceted artist, Joao Donato never wanted to limit himself to a single musical genre.

"I'm not bossa nova, samba, jazz, rumba or forró. In fact, I am all those things at once," he said in 2014 in an interview with the newspaper 'O Globo'.

His talent was recognized worldwide, with numerous international tours, and he lived about ten years in the United States.

"He was one of the geniuses of Brazilian music. Today we have lost one of our best composers, one of the most creative (...), who marked the history of music in our country with his compositions that toured the world," Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Twitter.

In June, Brazil had already lost another bossa nova icon, Astrud Gilberto, the singer of "La chica de Ipanema".

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