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.
Make Love to Me
Astrud Gilberto Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Come to me
Talk to me
Make love to me
Kiss my lips
to silence me
if I talk
it's a dream
I can tell
My eyes so close
close to yours
my lips so wet
wet on yours
Pressed on yours
so close don't loose
I will stoop in
remember until the end of time
I wish I could delay the time
Everytime you are near
Hope you will understand
How nice it was even though
the hour's late
will you wait
for my return to you
I will stoop in
remember until the end of time
I wish I could delay the time
Everytime all the time
Hope you will understand
How nice it was even though
the hour's late
will you wait
for my return to you
The lyrics of Astrud Gilberto's "Make Love to Me" express a desire for intimacy, pondering the ephemeral nature of the moment while hoping to make it last. The singer beckons for their lover to "come to me" and "make love to me," using physical touch as a way to communicate and align their thoughts and feelings. There is a sense of vulnerability in the plea to be silenced with a kiss: a fear that they may say or do something to ruin the moment. But at the same time, there is an overwhelming feeling of being present in the moment, of the senses being heightened and the self completely absorbed in the other.
The lyrics also reflect on the transience of time and the imperative to appreciate and savor the experiences that we have, knowing that they may never come again. The repeated refrain of "I wish I could delay the time" emphasizes the singer's yearning for the moment to last, while the question "will you wait for my return to you?" hints at the possibility of separation and distance. Yet despite these sentiments, the overall tone of the song is not despairing or mournful, but rather one of hope and joy, celebrating the beauty of human connection in all its fleeting impermanence.
Line by Line Meaning
Come to me
I want you to come close to me.
Talk to me
I want you to share your thoughts and feelings with me.
Make love to me
I want us to be intimate with each other.
Kiss my lips
I want you to express your affection by kissing my lips.
to silence me
Kiss me so that I stop talking and feel the intensity of the moment.
if I talk
If I start talking, use your kiss to stop me.
if I knew
I am aware that the moment is too good to be true and that it might just be a dream.
it's a dream
I cannot believe that this moment is really happening.
I can tell
I can sense that this moment is special.
My eyes so close
I am closing my eyes to feel the moment more intimately.
close to yours
I want to be as close to you as possible.
my lips so wet
My lips are wet with anticipation and expectation.
wet on yours
I want our lips to touch and experience the moisture of each other's lips.
Pressed on yours
I want our lips to be pressed against each other's with passion and intensity.
so close don't loose
Don't let go of this moment of closeness and intimacy.
I will stoop in
I will remember this moment forever.
remember until the end of time
I will never forget how special this moment is.
I wish I could delay the time
I wish this moment could last forever.
Everytime you are near
Every time I'm near you, I feel this way.
Hope you will understand
I hope you feel the same way I do.
How nice it was even though
Even if it was just a fleeting moment, I cherish it.
the hour's late
Although it's late, I still want to be with you.
will you wait
Will you wait for me?
for my return to you
I will gladly return to you, to feel this way again.
Contributed by Makayla R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Victor Antonio
one of the best contemporary singers, and my favorite
Emelio A. Salazar
Sweet voice and romantic song.
namrats 4512
A simple, straight-forward appeal to one's lover, "come let's be together, share ourselves, celebrate our life", sung by Astrud's loving, warm and sincere voice.
psychotropic7
I really like this song. This goes on the wedding night cd. Thanks!
Tiago Silva
So simple and at the same time so deep ... What a great Story in a song! :)
Miriam Sarmiento
Beautiful,beautiful song❤️❤️❤️
arhatyellow
Astrud Gilberto - what a stone cold fox! And a voice like a Portugese angel....
Basto Basto
just figured out why i like her singing..its relaxing because she sings every song like lullaby..
Maria Elena
🌹💋 Thanks for sharing love it !😘👍
Jokarilon
Thanks for watching.