Leandro e Leonardo

The brothers were raised in a poor family in Brazil, and from a young age worked with their parents on tomato farms and did odd jobs such as shining shoes. Emival convinced his brother to move to the city, and the two practiced performing songs by Chitãozinho & Xororó, Roberto Carlos and The Beatles with Emival typically singing lead as Luiz sang harmonies and accompanied them on the guitar, then began playing locally in a group called Os Dominantes. After moving to Brasília, where they lived with their uncle Zé, who arranged work for Luiz as a salesman at a clothing store and for Emival at a pharmacy, while also booking gigs for them. When they began performing regularly as a duo it was as Leandro & Leonardo, the stage names being those also given to the twin boys recently born to the pharmacist Emival was working for.[1]

After a few years of local and regional performances, they were offered spots on local television stations, and their first album came out in 1983. However, it wasn't until 1989 that they began to hit big on the Brazilian charts, with their Vol. 3 release. The group became superstars in the early 1990s, selling several million copies of their albums and obtaining a weekly show on Brazilian television. Music by Leandro and Leonardo sold 17 million records.[2] The album Leandro & Leonardo Vol. 4 sold 3.3 million records and is the best-selling Brazilian country music album of all time.

Death of Leandro

Luiz José da Costa at a performance as Leandro

After originally seeking treatment for back pain, Leandro was diagnosed with an Askin's tumor, a locally aggressive cancer occurring mostly in adolescents, on April 19, 1998 that had formed on the right side of his chest wall and already grown to the size of an orange.[1] He died 65 days later of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome while undergoing chemotherapy at the Hospital São Luiz in São Paulo on June 23, following two unsuccessful surgeries to resect the tumor and restrict blood flow to it.[3] At the time of his death the cancer was reported to be congenital,[4] but ongoing research instead points to a carcinogenic pesticide he was exposed to while working at a tomato farm in his youth, later aggravated by heavy tobacco smoking, as the most likely cause.[5] Leonardo continues to record as a solo artist.

Luiz was married twice, the first ending in divorce and the second (to former model Andréa Motta, mother to the youngest two of his three children) in separation shortly before his cancer was discovered. Leonardo's son is a well-known sertanejo universitário singer under the name Zé Felipe.

• List of best-selling Latin music artists

• Leonardo's official website
• Leandro y Leonardo biography at AllMusic
• Leandro & Leonardo discography at Discogs
• Leandro & Leonardo discography at MusicBrainz