Astrud Gilberto

Though millions of people around the world know Astrud Gilberto only for one song, that song was enough of a cultural force to give a Brazilian genre international legs and assure its young singer of a career for life. She was born Astrud Evangelina Weinert to German and Brazilian parents in Bahia, Brazil on March 29, 1940. In 1959, still only in her teens, she married singer/guitarist Joao Gilberto, a pioneer and rising star of the supple, jazzy Brazilian style known as bossa nova, taking her husband's surname in the process. In 1963, Joao was in New York City recording Getz/Gilberto, an ambitious crossover album with American jazz sax giant Stan Getz, when it was decided that Astrud, who had never been a singer, would sing lead on two tracks: "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)," both composed by bossa nova genius Antonio Carlos Jobim. Led by her deadpan-but-sultry vocal, the former became a worldwide smash, catapulting the Gilbertos, the album, and the entire genre to international renown upon its 1964 release. Joao and Astrud divorced later that same year, though one of their 1964 concerts was released in '66 as the live album Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2. By this time she was living in the U.S., and in 1965 she released her first solo record, The Astrud Gilberto Album, on Verve Records. Like her next several albums for the label, it consisted mainly of a combination of bossa nova and jazz tunes and achieved only moderate success. Her later records would include more of her own compositions. In the late '60s, Gilberto became adapting contemporary American pop/rock tunes by everybody from The Lovin' Spoonful to The Doors. In the 1970s she bounced around between CTI and other independent labels. After that, Gilberto's studio recordings became few and far between - she released only one studio album in each of the next three decades and none after that. Nevertheless, she maintained an active tour schedule through the '90s. She retired from touring in 2001, and the following year's Jungle would be her final album. Astrud Gilberto died on June 5, 2023 at the age of 83.