Ron Kroon/Wikimedia Commons
Astrud Gilberto, the Brazilian singer who took bossa nova to the top of the charts with her famous version of “The Girl from Ipanema,” has died. She was 83.
Her son, Marcelo, confirmed the news to The Independent. He said that Gilberto passed away on Monday but did not disclose a cause of her death. Her collaborator, Paul Ricci, also shared news of Gilberto’s death on social media, calling her “an important part of ALL that is Brazilian music.”
Gilberto was born Astrud Evangelina Weinert on March 29, 1940, in the Brazilian state of Bahia before moving to Rio de Janeiro, where she was raised. In 1959 she married João Gilberto—a guitarist who pioneered the bossa nova (Portuguese for “new trend”) style and is even sometimes referred to as the “father of bossa nova.”