Bebel Gilberto (born Isabel Gilberto de Oliveira on May 12, 1966 in New Yor… Read Full Bio ↴Bebel Gilberto (born Isabel Gilberto de Oliveira on May 12, 1966 in New York City) is an American-born Grammy Award-nominated Brazilian popular singer often associated with bossa nova. She is the daughter of João Gilberto and singer Miúcha. Her uncle is singer/composer Chico Buarque. Bebel has been performing since her youth in Rio de Janeiro.

At the age of seven, Bebel made an appearance on her mother's first solo album Miúcha. At age nine, Bebel performed with her mother and jazz saxophonist Stan Getz at a jazz festival in New York's Carnegie Hall. Back in Brazil, Bebel performed and recorded for the soundtrack of the children's musical Os Saltimbancos, written by Sergio Bardotti and Chico Buarque. Later on Bebel joined an experimental theatrical group and was a member of the founding team of the performance space Circo Voador (Flying Circus) at Ipanema Beach. In this group she met singer/songwriter Cazuza, who became a close friend and soon a major rock star in Brazil during the 1980s.

Throughout the 1990s, Bebel collaborated with a variety of musical stars such as Arto Lindsay, Thievery Corporation, David Byrne, Towa Tei, Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque. In 1996 Bebel was featured in the AIDS charity project Red Hot + Rio, produced by her close friend and collaborator Béco Dranoff. By the mid 1990s, Bebel also had successes as songwriter with the international dance hits "Technova" and "Batucada" in collaboration with producers Towa Tei and Arto Lindsay.

Bebel was featured on the soundtrack of Brad Anderson's film Next Stop Wonderland with Vinicius Cantuária and Mauro Refosco. In the late 1990s, Bebel moved to London where she began to develop the sound featured on her critically acclaimed debut album Tanto Tempo. During this period, she met Suba, the multi-talented Serbian producer living in São Paulo who ended up writing and producing several tracks on Tanto Tempo. While in London, she also worked with DJ/producer Amon Tobin, Dutch duo Arling & Cameron and singer Nina Miranda.

In 2000, Bebel's Tanto Tempo album was released on Ziriguiboom (Crammed Discs sub-label) and has sold over one million copies worldwide. The album was also nominated for two Latin Grammy Awards. Her second album, Bebel Gilberto (2004), was also released to great critical acclaim, receiving a MOBO Award in the UK and also a World Music Grammy nomination.

Also in 2006, Bebel started writing and producing the songs that would become part of her third album Momento, released in April 2007. On this album, Bebel collaborated with UK producer Guy Sigsworth, her friends Didi Gutman and Sabina Sciubba (from NY based band Brazilian Girls) and the Rio based Orquestra Imperial.

Gilberto's most recent album, All In One, was released in the US in September 2009 by jazz imprint Verve.

Cancao de Amor
Bebel Gilberto Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Sonhando acordada lembrava
Do que então seria
Estar com você por um dia
Ou pra sempre, uhum
Pensava que então esse dia
Viria pra sempre
Pois quando canto, canto sem parar
E tudo vira canção

Dun, dun, dun
É o meu amor, é o meu amor
Eu só quero cantar pra você

Dun, dun, dun
Não sei bem porque
Me leva você
Este som
Essa canção de amor

Sonhando acordada lembrava
Do que então seria
Estar com você por um dia
Ou pra sempre, uhum
Sabia no fundo que esse dia
Era pra sempre
E sempre vou cantar
Esta canção
Ti por amor

Dun, dun dun
Não sei bem porque
É o meu amor
E este som me leva a você

Cucocucocuco
Não sei bem porque
Me leva você
Este som
Esta canção de amor

Cucocucocuco
É o meu amor
É o meu amor
E este som me leva a você
Dun, dun dun
É o meu amor
Este som

Esta canção
Um cheiro de amor

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Bebel Gilberto's "Cancao de Amor" capture the feeling of being lost in daydreams about a love that might never come true. The singer reflects on a fantasy of being with someone special either for a day or forever. She believes that singing endlessly about love can make it manifest in reality. The repetitive motifs of "Dun, dun, dun" and "Cucocucocuco" suggests the singer's compulsive need to express her feelings through music. She is unsure why this particular melody and sound possess such power over her, but she imagines it as a conduit to reach her beloved. The last line "Um cheiro de amor" (a scent of love) is an evocative description of how love can be sensed even if it is not tangible.

Overall, the song portrays the hope and longing that accompanies the ambiguity of love, and how it can be both a comfort and a curse. It is a love song that is less about romance and more about the power of music to evoke feelings of passion and connection. It is open to interpretation and can be appreciated for the ethereal atmosphere it creates.

Line by Line Meaning

Sonhando acordada lembrava
Reminiscing while awake

Do que então seria
Of what would be then

Estar com você por um dia
Being with you for a day

Ou pra sempre, uhum
Or forever, uh-hum

Pensava que então esse dia
Thought that then that day

Viria pra sempre
Would come forever

Pois quando canto, canto sem parar
Because when I sing, I sing non-stop

E tudo vira canção
And everything becomes a song

Dun, dun, dun
Musical interlude

É o meu amor, é o meu amor
It's my love, it's my love

Eu só quero cantar pra você
I just want to sing for you