THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA STOPS TALKING
The voice of “The Girl from Ipanema” is on the elevator to Heaven. Brazilian Astrud Gilberto married “father of bossa nova” João Gilberto in 1959, and became a defining voice of the genre through happenstance. The Portuguese-language “Garota de Ipanema” had already been a regional hit when the joint forces of João Gilberto and Stan Getz aimed to take it international. It was decided to cut an English-language version, and Astrud offered her talents as the only Brazilian in the studio to know fluent English. It worked like a charm – her delicate vocals were just what the song needed, and “The Girl from Ipanema” became a worldwide smash that is believed to be the second-most-covered pop song after “Yesterday”.
If luck gave her the opportunity to make it big, it was talent that let her seize it. But the man’s world of the recording industry did not see it that way. Stan Getz insisted that the credit for “Ipanema”’s success belonged not to Gilberto for doing the actual singing, but to him for “discovering” her. Dismissing her as “just a housewife”, he went out of his way to ensure she got no royalties beyond the $120 session paycheck. The Brazilian press vilified her as a traitor for her international fame, and deemed her to blame when she divorced from João due to his own infidelities.
Her international popularity inspired her to keep going, and after several tortuous years touring with Getz’s band to keep her career alive, she split solo. She recorded bossa nova albums for the remainder of the century, and collaborated with everyone from Chet Baker to George Michael. She retired from performing in the early aughts and shifted focus to animal rights activism up to her death aged 83. And when she passes, Thats 70’s Mixtape smiles, but she doesn’t see…
Astrud Gilberto
29 March 1940 – 5 June 2023, aged 82
💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = 10 POINTS