The tragic death of the popular Brazilian singer Marília Mendonça has left the whole of Brazil in shock and sadness.

Tens of thousands of fans said goodbye to Mendonça over the weekend in the Brazilian city of Goiânia.

People stood in line for hours in front of the sports arena where the wake was taking place.

Numerous personalities from the Brazilian show scene were among the mourners.

But the grief went far beyond her following and the show scene.

Even President Jair Bolsonaro expressed his condolences on social networks.

Brazil lost one of the greatest artists.

Tjerk Brühwiller

Correspondent for Latin America based in São Paulo.

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The 26-year-old singer had a fatal accident on Friday on the way to a concert with a small plane. The twin-engine airplane taxi Mendonça was traveling in apparently collided with a high-voltage power line on approach and then crashed. All passengers, including the uncle and a manager of Mendonça, as well as the two pilots were killed in the accident. Mendonça leaves behind a child who is just under two years old. The authorities have started investigations into the course of the accident.  

Mendonça had made a name for herself as a representative of the so-called Sertanejo. The style, which can best be described as a Brazilian mixture of country and hit songs with a lot of heartbreak, is considered the most popular music in Brazil and is more popular than, for example, samba in many elongated regions. Sertanejo is hardly known across national borders, but has developed into a billion-dollar business in Brazil. Many singers enjoy the status of superstars in Brazil. 

In this male-dominated scene, Mendonça, who began to sing at the age of twelve, was one of the few women to assert herself and achieve unparalleled fame and success.

In 2017, Mendonça was Brazil's most popular singer.

In 2019 she received the Latin Grammy for the best-selling Sertanejo album.

The stories of love and suffering she sung from the perspective of a woman made Mendonça not only the star of female Sertanejo fans, but also a pioneer and idol for other singers in the scene.

Many see Mendonça as a feminist champion of the Sertanejo scene.

For others, she was simply the queen in a man's world.