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.

Night And Day
Bebel Gilberto Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Night and day, you are the one
Only you beneath the moon and under the sun
Whether near to me, or far
It's no matter, darling, where you are
I think of you night and day

Day and night, why is it so?
That this longing for you follows

Wherever I go

In the roaring traffic's boom
In the silence of my lonely room
I think of you night and day

Night and day
Under the hide of me
There's an, oh, such a hungry yearning
Burning inside of me

And this torment won't be through
Until you let me spend my life making

Love to you
Day and night, night and day

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Bebel Gilberto's song "Night and Day" express feelings of longing, love, and desire that continue despite distance and the passage of time. The opening lines highlight how the individual being addressed in the song serves as a constant source of pleasure and companionship, whether they are physically close or not: "Night and day, you are the one/Only you beneath the moon and under the sun." This sentiment is reiterated in the chorus as the singer states, "I think of you night and day" and "In the roaring traffic's boom/In the silence of my lonely room/I think of you night and day." Such lines express how this person is present in every aspect of the singer's life- even in moments of noise or quiet solitude.

Furthermore, the song communicates the depth of the singer's longing for the person in question. In the verse "Under the hide of me/There's an, oh, such a hungry yearning/Burning inside of me," the singer describes an intense desire that is consuming and persistent. The final verse captures the consequences of this yearning, as the singer insists, "And this torment won't be through/Until you let me spend my life making/Love to you/Day and night, night and day."

Overall, the lyrics of "Night and Day" vividly capture the experiences of longing and love that are both intense and persistent, even when external circumstances continue to change.

Line by Line Meaning

Night and day, you are the one
You are always on my mind, day and night

Only you beneath the moon and under the sun
There's no one else in the world who occupies my thoughts like you do

Whether near to me, or far
No matter where you are or how distant you may be from me

It's no matter, darling, where you are
Your physical presence makes no difference to the love I feel for you

I think of you night and day
You occupy my thoughts continuously, whether it's day or night

Day and night, why is it so?
Why do I keep thinking about you, day and night?

That this longing for you follows
Why does this craving and yearning for you persist?

Wherever I go
No matter where I travel or what I do, my thoughts keep coming back to you

In the roaring traffic's boom
Even amidst the noisy chaos of the world, my heart still beats only for you

In the silence of my lonely room
Even when I am alone with my thoughts in a quiet room, I cannot escape your hold on me

I think of you night and day
My mind is consumed by thoughts of you throughout the day and night

Night and day
Whether it's day or night, my love for you never fades

Under the hide of me
Deep inside of me, below the surface of my skin

There's an, oh, such a hungry yearning
There's a deep, insatiable desire for you that I can't ignore

Burning inside of me
It consumes me completely, like a fire burning within my soul

And this torment won't be through
This suffering won't end until I find a way to be with you

Until you let me spend my life making love to you
Until I can express my love for you through every moment we share together, whether it be physically or emotionally

Day and night, night and day
My love for you remains constant, no matter the time of day or night

Lyrics © Roba Music Verlag GMBH, Red Brick Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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