Singer Astrud Gilberto dies at 83

Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto has died at age 83, according to her family.

She made "The Girl from Ipanema" a worldwide sensation in the 1960s and provided a huge boost to the budding bossa nova genre,

Her granddaughter Sofia Gilberto said in a social media statement, "I come bearing the sad news that my grandmother became a star today and is next to my grandfather Joao Gilberto." 

The singer was born in Salvador, capital of Brazil´s northeastern state of Bahia, in 1940 and was married to Joao Gilberto, a pioneer of the bossa nova genre who died in 2019.

Astrud Gilberto recorded 19 albums in her career, but she had little professional music experience when she turned "The Girl from Ipanema" -- the song by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes -- into a global smash singing the English verses alongside American saxophonist Stan Getz.

The version made Gilberto the first Brazilian to be nominated for a Grammy -- which she won, for song of the year, in 1965.

She ended up leaving her husband for Getz and moving to the United States.

But that turbulent period in her life produced some of the best-loved recordings of all time, including the live album of the three friends´ concert at New York´s Carnegie Hall in October 1964.

Aged just 24, Gilberto suffered from stage fright, which she overcame by taking theater classes at the Stella Adler acting academy.

The pretty young brunette wowed audiences with her satin voice, which she took on tour with Getz. She earned the nickname "The Queen of Bossa Nova," bringing the syncopated, relaxed Brazilian musical style to the world.