The daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, Gilberto was raised in Rio de Janeiro and moved to the USA in the early 1960s. In her mid-teens, she became part of (her own words) a "musical clan" when she met João Gilberto, whom she described as the clan's musical "guru". She married him a few months later, in 1959. She frequently sang duets with him, or sang while he accompanied her on guitar, and he acted as her musical tutor. She also sang publicly with her husband in a concert at the Rio de Janeiro Faculty of Architecture, but did not sing professionally at that time.
The couple moved to the United States in 1963, where she performed on the influential Getz/Gilberto album with João Gilberto, Stan Getz and Antonio Carlos Jobim. While rehearsing "The Girl from Ipanema", João asked her to sing a verse in English, and then persuaded Getz to include this in the final recording. Getz agreed, and Astrud's professional career began. After the recording Getz told Astrud it would make her famous, and was proved correct.
In the mid-1960s the couple divorced.
The success of Gilberto's vocal work on the song "The Girl from Ipanema" quickly turned her into a jazz star, and soon she started recording solo. She started as an interpreter of Brazilian bossa nova and American jazz standards, but started recording her own compositions in the 1970s.
Gilberto's recordings exposed the nations of the World to the sensuality of Brazilian music and to her unique vocal interpretations of American music, such as "The Shadow of your Smile", "It Might as well be Spring", "Fly Me to the Moon", "Look to the Rainbow" (from her album of the same title, with Gil Evans), "Love Story", etc...
Following the hit with "Ipanema", her recording career quickly took off. Her first solo effort, "The Astrud Gilberto Album", was an immediate best-seller and was itself nominated as album of the year. Her next albums were all chart-toppers and were released on a yearly schedule. Her talents were much in demand in other areas as well as she appeared in two motion pictures, "The Hanged Man" and "Get Yourself a College Girl" and also recorded the soundtrack for "The Deadly Affair", arranged by Quincy Jones. She made appearances in all of the popular US television shows of the time, and had TV specials built around her in Europe, Japan and Africa. For many years she was the voice of Eastern Airlines, having recorded award-winning commercials.
In the early seventies, Gilberto revealed another facet of her talents, her songwriting, which was introduced on the albums "Astrud Gilberto Now" (1972) and "That Girl From Ipanema" (1977). On the "That Girl from Ipanema" album, Gilberto recorded one of her songs, "Far Away" (with lyrics by Hal Shaper), as a duet with the legendary Chet Baker. As she has revealed in interviews, this was one of the most rewarding events of her career, since Baker had been one of Gilberto's idols dating back to her teenage years. In 1976, one of her compositions, "Live Today" (co-written with Jerome Schur), received an award at the Tokyo Music Festival.
In the early eighties, Gilberto formed a group, a sextet comprised of piano, bass, drums, trombone, guitar and percussion. Her son, Marcelo Gilberto, joined her group as bassist. With this group format, she toured Europe, Japan, Canada, and the United States. With the aid of Marcelo's valuable musical contributions, she polished the group's arrangements and entered a different phase in her career, as her music became more diversified and her songwriting more proliferous. Her shows, from the beginning of her career up to her last public appearance (2001), have been usually sold out and at many venues she has broken the house record in attendance. Seeking for a way to overcome her stage fright, which was sometimes overwhelming, Gilberto attended the Stella Adler School of Acting, for a couple of years, in the early eighties. The experience was helpful. Although still shy, Gilberto learned to control the stage fright to the extent that she can "live with it".
Her album "Astrud Gilberto Plus The James Last Orchestra", released in 1987, solidified her career as songwriter. The album includes a few of her own original compositions of which "Champagne & Caviar", "Amor e Som" and "I'm nothing without you" (Astrud's lyrics to A.C. Jobim's melody) are best known. The release of this album combined with the reissuing of some of her early records as CDs has created a whole new generation of fans for Astrud Gilberto all over the world, in addition to her already large number of followers. The "Astrud Gilberto Plus the James Last Orchestra" album was extremely well received by critics, as well as fellow artists.
In 1990, Gilberto, along with her sons Marcelo Gilberto and Gregory Lasorsa, formed Gregmar Productions, Inc. In the years that followed, Gilberto toured extensively, developing her live show and writing new material.
In 1992, Gilberto received the "Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement" for her outstanding contribution to Latin jazz music.
In 1995, the first project by Gregmar studios was released on an album as tribute to Jobim on the label Ps Flag/BMG ("Heirs To Jobim"). The song, "Forever Green", one of Jobim's last compositions before passing away, features saxophonist Michael Brecker. In that same year, in a sold-out Thursday night appearance, Astrud Gilberto became the first "Jazz" Artist to sing at the trendy "House of Blues" in Los Angeles, which had until then presented Blues and Rock acts, exclusively. She has also broken house records at the very popular "Jazz Cafe" club in London.
In early 1996 the first album from Gregmar was released in the Asian territories, including Japan, on the Pony Canyon label. It is comprised of various live performances recorded in NYC in 1989, for which is called "Astrud Gilberto - Live in New York".
The "Desafinado" duet with George Michael, in the Fall of 1996 included on the "Red Hot & Rio" album, gained international attention, and exposed the Bossa Nova style to a large number of Pop music fans. "Desafinado" has also been included on George Michael's 1999 release "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Best of George Michael".
Also in 1996, Gilberto recorded a duet with the famous European vocalist, French Pop star, Ettienne Daho. The song, "Les Bordes de Seine", included on Daho's "Eden" album, was co-written by Daho and Gilberto and was particularly well received by "Hip-Hop" fans.
In late 1997, a studio album (also by Gregmar Productions), produced by Astrud and Marcelo Gilberto, was released in the Asian territories by the Pony Canyon label. Comprised entirely of Astrud Gilberto's original compositions (with the exception of just one American standard), the album bears the title of "Temperance". Yet to be released outside of Asia, the album features guests Michael Franks and the New York Voices.
Gilberto's sold-out performances at the "House of Blues", and her legendary shows at NYC's SOB's continued to be musical "happenings" to her fans up until 2001, when she decided to take indefinite time off the "road", in order to be able to spend more time with her family, and do more writing and painting (she is also a fine art artist (click here to view some of her artwork).
Gilberto's style has been a strong influence in contemporary music. Many artists have revealed the fact that they have been inspired by her musical style, among them: Basia (who recorded a tribute to Astrud, a song named "Astrud"), Sade, Sinead O'Connor, Michael Franks, Pat Metheney, and Suzanne Vega. Several "avant-garde" groups have also professed having Astrud as their "inspiring muse".
Gilberto's work as songwriter has gradually but surely developed from a "side thing" in the beginning of her career, to an integral part of it, in the later years. Since the mid-eighties, her live shows featured a large number of her own original compositions, to which audiences have been just as receptive as they have always been to old standards such as "The Girl from Ipanema", "One Note Samba", or "Quiet Nights".
Gilberto's 2002 "Jungle" album release, is a showcase of her songwriting, as it features ten original new compositions.
In April 2002, Gilberto was inducted into the "International Latin Music Hall of Fame".
In November 2008, Gilberto was awarded by the Latin Recording Academy the "Lifetime Achievement" Grammy Award.
Insensatez
Astrud Gilberto Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Coração mais sem cuidado
Fez chorar de dor
O seu amor
Um amor tão delicado
Ah, porque você foi fraco assim
Assim tão desalmado
Ah, meu coração que nunca amou
Vai meu coração ouve a razão
Usa só sinceridade
Quem semeia vento, diz a razão
Colhe sempre tempestade
Vai, meu coração pede perdão
Perdão apaixonado
Vai porque quem não
Pede perdão
Não é nunca perdoado
The lyrics of the song Insensatez by Astrud Gilberto talk about a heartbroken person who was hurt by someone they loved. The person who they loved was insensitive to their feelings, causing them to cry in pain. The song discusses the fragility of the love that was shared between them, indicating that it was a delicate love that was not handled with care. The singer questions why the person they loved was so weak and heartless. They feel that their heart, which has never experienced love before, did not deserve to be loved by someone who was incapable of reciprocating their feelings.
The singer then advises their heart to listen to reason and be truthful. They compare the act of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind, telling their heart that if one should act in a thoughtless and careless manner, they should be prepared to face the consequences of their actions. They ask their heart to apologize for being so passionate about the person who did not reciprocate their love. The singer concludes by advising their heart that those who do not apologize are never forgiven.
Line by Line Meaning
A insensatez que você fez
The folly you committed
Coração mais sem cuidado
A heart with less caution
Fez chorar de dor
Caused tears of pain
O seu amor
Your love
Um amor tão delicado
A love so delicate
Ah, porque você foi fraco assim
Ah, why were you so weak
Assim tão desalmado
So heartless like that
Ah, meu coração que nunca amou
Ah, my heart that never loved
Não merece ser amado
Does not deserve to be loved
Vai meu coração ouve a razão
Go my heart, listen to reason
Usa só sinceridade
Use only sincerity
Quem semeia vento, diz a razão
He who sows the wind, says reason
Colhe sempre tempestade
Always reaps a storm
Vai, meu coração pede perdão
Go, my heart, ask for forgiveness
Perdão apaixonado
Passionate forgiveness
Vai porque quem não
Go because he who
Pede perdão
Asks for forgiveness
Não é nunca perdoado
Is never forgiven
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Vinicius De Moraes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roberto Carlos Braga
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
AdrianoUriel
How insensitive
I must have seemed
When he told me that he loved me
How unmoved and cold
I must have seemed
When he told me so sincerely
Why he must have asked
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to say
What can you say
When a love affair is over
Now he's gone away
And I'm alone
With a memory of his last look
Vague and drawn and sad
I see it still
All his heartbreak in his last look
Why, he must have asked,
Could I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to do
What can one do
When a love affair is over
Juliana Dias
Tradução em português do Brasil:
QUE INSENSÍVEL
Que insensível
Eu devo ter parecido
Quando ele me disse que me amava
Quão imóvel e frio
Eu devo ter parecido
Quando ele me disse tão sinceramente
Por que ele deve ter perguntado Acabei de me virar e olhar em silêncio gelado
O que eu deveria dizer
O que você pode dizer
Quando um caso de amor acaba Agora ele foi embora
E eu estou sozinha
Com uma lembrança de seu último olhar
Vagas e desenhadas e tristes Ainda vejo
Todo o seu coração partido em seu último olhar
Por que, ele deve ter perguntado, Eu poderia apenas me virar e encarar em silêncio gelado
O que eu devo fazer
O que se pode fazer
Quando um caso de amor acaba
Avinash 4M
How insensitive
I must have seemed
When he told me that he loved me
How unmoved and cold
I must have seemed
When he told me so sincerely
Why he must have asked
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to say?
What can you say when a love affair is over?
Now he's gone away
And I'm alone with the memory of his last look
Vague and drawn and sad
I see it still
All his heartbreak in that last look
Why he must have asked
Did I just stand and stare in icy silence?
What was I to do?
What can one do when a love affair is over?
Over
roy centinella
Rest in peace Astrud! Você também colocou seu grãozinho de areia nessa imensa praia musical da nação brasileira pro mundo! E fez muito bonito!
Nancy Vargas
Bellísima canción e inigualable interpretación de está hermosa cantante con dulce y melodiosa voz. Por siempre y para siempre La Grandiosa Intérprete de Bossa Nova: "ASTRUD GILBERTO" 🌟👌RIP🙏🏻🎤🌹👏👏👏👏🌹👏👏👏😢👉❤️👍
AdrianoUriel
How insensitive
I must have seemed
When he told me that he loved me
How unmoved and cold
I must have seemed
When he told me so sincerely
Why he must have asked
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to say
What can you say
When a love affair is over
Now he's gone away
And I'm alone
With a memory of his last look
Vague and drawn and sad
I see it still
All his heartbreak in his last look
Why, he must have asked,
Could I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to do
What can one do
When a love affair is over
Christopher Smith
One of my all-time favourite records.
Marjut Portin
Just yesterday!! I heard this beautiful song the very first time. Absolutely... so awesome! And I love bossa nova as well.
Charles Duby
The voice of an angel,I remember being a kid and really really loving her songs,now that I'm older I still get that same feeling,it's like floating away into the sun on a summer dream
Robert Millán
Siempre estuve enamorado de la voz y de la canción y nunca la había visto a ella hasta que entré a las fuerzas armadas cuando por primera vez la ví en un programa televisado y quedé super encantado con ella. ¡Una voz y belleza simple que tenía! Wow!
I was always in love with the voice and the song even thou I never saw her until I went into the Armed Forces and saw her for the first time in a TV show and I became super enchanted with her. A simple voice and beauty she had. Wow!
Jhon Garzón
No dejas de sorprenderme. Amor está canción 💕
Juliana Dias
Tradução em português do Brasil:
QUE INSENSÍVEL
Que insensível
Eu devo ter parecido
Quando ele me disse que me amava
Quão imóvel e frio
Eu devo ter parecido
Quando ele me disse tão sinceramente
Por que ele deve ter perguntado Acabei de me virar e olhar em silêncio gelado
O que eu deveria dizer
O que você pode dizer
Quando um caso de amor acaba Agora ele foi embora
E eu estou sozinha
Com uma lembrança de seu último olhar
Vagas e desenhadas e tristes Ainda vejo
Todo o seu coração partido em seu último olhar
Por que, ele deve ter perguntado, Eu poderia apenas me virar e encarar em silêncio gelado
O que eu devo fazer
O que se pode fazer
Quando um caso de amor acaba
Marc
Heard this song for the first time today.. had to stop what I was doing bc I was shook by the lyrics……. how Incredibly sad and relatable