Astrid Gilberto, singer of ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ fame, dies at 83

Bahia: 83-year-old Brazilian singer Astrid Gilberto, who made ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ a worldwide classic, has died. Sofia Gilberto, the musician’s granddaughter, posted on Instagram that he had passed away, but did not provide any other information. “My grandmother Astrid Gilberto made this song for me, it’s called Linda Sofia,” Sofia wrote in Portuguese. “She also wanted my name to be Linda Sophia.”

“Life is beautiful, as the song says, but I am here to bring you the sad news that my grandmother has become a star today,” he added. ,[She] My grandfather has João Gilberto. Astrid was the true girl who brought bossa nova from Ipanema to the world.”

Friend and frequent collaborator Paul Rickey also shared the news on Facebook, according to People.

“I just received word from her son Marcelo that we lost Astrid Gilberto. He asked to post this,” she wrote. “He was an important part of Brazilian music in the world and he changed many lives with his energy. RIP from “the main” as he called me. Thanks AG.”

Astrid was born in Bahia, Brazil in 1940 and raised in Rio de Janeiro. She later married musician João Gilberto in 1959. Her singing career got off to a good start when she and her husband went to New York in 1963 for a recording session with Stan Getz and fellow Brazilian bossa nova singer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Astrid was the only person who could speak English and volunteered when session producers needed someone who could speak English to help “The Girl from Ipanema” reach an American audience. Astrid had no prior recording experience.

“Asterd was in the control room when Norm came up with the English lyrics,” session supervisor Phil Ramone told Jazzwax in 2010. “Producer Creed Taylor said he wanted to finish the song right away and look around the room,” People reported.

He explained, “Astred volunteered, she could sing in English. Creed said, ‘Very well.’ Astrid was not a professional singer, but she was the only victim sitting there that night.”

She was not credited for the song’s opening duet with her husband, but it was eventually re-edited without her Portuguese vocals and released as a solo single, where it quickly gained popularity. Astrid was nominated for Best Vocal Performance by a Female, and the song earned a Grammy for Song of the Year.

That same year, she divorced Joao and toured the country with Stan Getz and his band, according to People. When the song became a success, Getz and producer Creed Taylor described Astrid as a housewife they had discovered – which angered him.

“Nothing is further from the truth,” he wrote on his website. “I guess it might seem ‘important’ to them that he was the one who had the ‘wisdom’ to recognize the talent or ‘potential’ in my singing… I think I should be happy with that importance. They should give it credit, but I can’t help but feel angry at the fact that they resorted to lies!

Although she recorded several jazz albums, including The Astrid Gilberto Album in 1965, Astrid Gilberto Now in 1972, and That Girl from Ipanema in 1977, “Girl from Ipanema” was her only major hit.

He started a band in the 1980s and toured the world with it. His son Marcelo played bass in the duo. Yet she stayed away from Brazil because she believed she was not treated fairly there.

In 2002, he finished recording his last album, Jungle, and then announced an indefinite break from performing in public. He received his induction into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame that same year. He received a lifetime achievement award at the Latin Grammys in 2008.

The memory of the “girl from Ipanema” endured despite the fact that she devoted most of her later years to fighting animal abuse. Astrid is survived by her son from her first marriage, in addition to Marcelo Gilberto, another son of Astrid, Gregory Lasorsa, from her second marriage to Nicolas Lasorsa, which ended in divorce.