Rest In Peace, Astrud Gilberto

As I was listening to Astrud Gilberto this week, I discovered that she passed away earlier this year:

BRASILIA, June 6 (Reuters) – Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto, the voice of Bossa Nova whose soft and dreamy version of “The Girl from Ipanema” was an international success in the 1960s, has died at the age of 83, her family said.

Gilberto died on Monday at her home in Philadelphia, her granddaughter Sofia Gilberto said on social media.

“Life is beautiful, as the song says, but I bring the sad news that my grandmother became a star today and is next to my grandfather Joao Gilberto,” the granddaughter wrote.

Guitarist Joao Gilberto, who died in 2019, was Astrud’s former husband and the pioneer composer and songwriter of Bossa Nova, which mixed Brazilian samba music with “cool jazz” in the late 1950s.

He collaborated with U.S. saxophonist Stan Getz in 1963 on the album “Getz/Gilberto” that popularized the new Brazilian sound worldwide.

Astrud performed the vocals in English, including the duet “The Girl from Ipanema” which became the album’s major hit. “Getz/Gilberto” won three Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, the first time a jazz album received the accolade.

“The Girl from Ipanema” was the first song the 22-year-old Astrud recorded and launched her career almost by accident. In later interviews, she said she was in the New York studio where Getz and her then-husband were recording and he suggested she do the song as he did not sing in English.

She later moved to the United States, where she toured with Getz, singing Bossa Nova and American jazz standards.

I’ve listened to her for years and loved her very real voice and low-key style.

Fame is fleeting, and death comes to us all. Rest in peace, Astrud.

Image at top via Getty Images

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