Astrud Gilberto

Astrud Gilberto was a Brazilian singer and songwriter who rose to fame as one of the most popular and influential bossa nova singers. She was born in Salvador in the Brazilian state of Bahia, on March 29, 1940. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro and learned to speak several languages from her German father, who was a language professor. She married João Gilberto, a pioneer of bossa nova, in 1959 and moved to the United States with him in 1963. She made her professional debut as a singer on the album Getz,Gilberto, featuring João Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Antônio Carlos Jobim. She sang the English lyrics for The Girl from Ipanema, which became a worldwide hit and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1965. She also recorded several solo albums and collaborated with other artists, such as Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, George Michael, and Shaggy. She sang in Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, and Italian, and composed and recorded many songs, both in bossa nova and other genres. She also participated in several soundtracks for movies and TV shows, such as The Deadly Affair, The Hanged Man, and The Simpsons. She was named Singer of the Millennium by BBC Radio in 1999, along with Tina Turner. She died of heart failure in New York City on June 5, 2023, at the age of 83. She left behind a legacy of music and style that influenced generations of singers and musicians.