Latin Grammy-winning singer Marília Mendonça, 26, dies in plane crash in Brazil

One of Brazil’s most popular singers, 26-year-old Marília Mendonça, and four other people died Friday in a plane crash.

Mendonça, a Latin Grammy-winning singer and a symbol of feminism in Brazilian popular music, was flying from the northern state of Goiania, on her way to Minas Gerais, a state in the country’s southeast, where she was scheduled to perform.

In this file photo, Singer Marilia Mendonça performs in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, Sept. 25, 2021. One of Brazil’s most popular singers and a Latin Grammy winner, Mendonca died on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021, in an airplane crash on her way to a concert. (Will Dias /)

According to the Brazilian news portal G1, the plane crashed by a waterfall in Piedade de Caratinga, a small town of about 8,000 people located 180 miles east of the state’s capital Belo Horizonte.

Everybody on the plane died, authorities said, including the pilot, co-pilot, her producer Henrique Ribeiro, and her uncle, who also worked with her, Abicieli Silveira Dias Filho.

Brazilian power distribution company CEMIG said in a statement that the “twin-engine plane carrying the singer Marília Mendonça and four other people hit a cable in an energy distribution tower.” Around 33,000 lost power for most of Friday, but service has since been restored in some municipalities.

This handout photo released by Minas Gerais Civil Police shows the crashed airplane plane that was transporting Brazilian singer Marilia Mendonca, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais Brazil, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021.

Mendonça was a “promising young singer/songwriter and the voice of a new generation of Sertaneja music in Brazil,” the Latin Recording Academy said in a statement shared on social media on Saturday.

Sertaneja, or Brazil’s regional country music, is a widely popular style in the world’s fifth most-populous country.

News of the singer’s tragic accident dominated both traditional and social media in Brazil on Saturday.

“Absolutely all of Brazil’s front pages pay tribute to the late country singer Marília Mendonça who has died in a plane crash age just 26,” the Latin American correspondent for The Guardian wrote on Twitter.

Brazilian superstar Anitta shared a tribute for her late friend.

“Yesterday I told you that I love you, yesterday,” she wrote Friday on Instagram. “I can’t believe this happened. Why this accident, my God????”

Mendonça was one of the “best, funniest generous women,” she added. “I’m devastated.”

According to the Latin Recording Academy, the singer won a Latin Grammy in the best sertaneja music album category in 2019. She was also nominated in 2017, and is a nominee this year, for the 22nd Latin Grammy Awards, which will be held Nov. 18 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

“Marília Mendonça will be greatly missed, but her legacy will live on through her music,” the academy’s CEO, Manuel Abud, said in a statement.