The Story of Astrud Gilberto: The Girl from Ipanema

The Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto, best known for having sung in “The Girl from Ipanema”, the famous English version of the Brazilian bossa nova song “Garota de Ipanema”, written by the composer Antonio Carlos Jobim with the words by Vinicius de Moraes.

Astrud Gilberto was born in 1940 in Salvador de Bahia with the name Astrud Evangelina Weinert, which she changed after marrying the famous singer and guitarist Joao Gilberto. In 1963 she accompanied her husband to New York, in the United States, where the latter was to record an album together with the American saxophonist Stan Getz: during the recording, the producer Creed Taylor proposed to make a version of “Garota de Ipanema” sung in part in Brazilian and partly in English, with the aim of making it known to the US public as well. Taylor had Joao Gilberto sing the Brazilian parts and the English ones to his wife Astrud, who had no experience in singing but was the only one in the recording studio who knew English well.

The song was recorded with the English title “The Girl from Ipanema” and initially included in the 1964 disc Getz/Gilberto, but later a 45 rpm was released in which the Brazilian parts had been cut and only the English version sung by Astrud Gilberto remained. The song was a huge success in the United States and Astrud Gilberto has since begun a successful career in the music business. He divorced after a few months and in 1965 he released his first solo record. In the following years he moved to the United States, where he worked together with many important musicians such as Quincy Jones, Gil Evans and Chet Baker. “The Girl from Ipanema” is still among the most performed jazz standards in the world today.

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