Take me to Ipanema

Take me to Ipanema so I can breath the exotic air of the beaches, feel the breeze of the wind while it's whispering sweet things through my hair and watch the waves kissing the shore in the golden sunset...

Ahh.. You get the mood I'm in right now? It's winter and it's cold I'm hell missing summer!
I was putting together this year's holiday compilation and came across bossa nova on iTunes. More precisely Astrud Gilberto, a brazilian singer, who's songs are so elegant and extremely relaxing (and differently from her co-artists of bossa movement, never make me sad). If you haven't heard of her before then you surely know the The Girl From Ipanema, which she, by the way, sang famous (in english) in 1964. Here is the story of the song..

..It was 1962 when Jobim saw the girl.

Tom Jobim was a Grammy-award winning Brazilian song writer/performer who is considered to be the primary force behind the creation of bossa nova style. (wiki).
Jobim used to hang out always at Bar Veloso, an open air veranda-style bar where to drink beer, smoke cigarettes, chat with friends, read newspaper and watch pretty girls walk by. A definitely place-to-be in the trendy and artistical Ipanema, a beach neighborhood in South of Rio de Janeiro.

Almost every day a certain girl passed by the Veloso. She was tall and tan and young and lovely with long borwn hair and green eyes. The way she sensually swayed her hips and rather coldly ignored the whistling and cat-calls of the men at the bar certainly made her more special and beautiful of all the other girls. And Jobim fell in love.
"Isn't she the prettiest thing?" he said one fine day to his friend, Moraes, who wrote the line on a napkin and later elaborated the lyrics of the song.

In 1963 Jobim flew with his friends Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto and his wife Astrud Gilberto to New York to record an album for Verve Records.

It was then that the idea of recording an English version of the song popped-out of their minds and Astrud was suggested to sing the part. Though she wasn't a professional singer, she was the only one who spoke English and could pronunce the words correctly plus she had a very sensual voice that well suited the theme of the song. In 1964 it became a world-wide hit and won a Grammy a year later.

And so was it back in home, Brazil, where mystery around the identity and the existence of "The It Girl" grew. It took a while until Jobim got the courage to introduce himself to the girl and reveal the truth. With the ice finally broken, he set out to win her heart. On their second date, he stated his love for her and asked her to marry him. Unfortunatelly that never happened, as she was already promised to her fiancè at the age of 15.

"She is a golden girl, a mixture of flowers and mermaids, full of light and full of grace, but whose character is also sad with the feeling that youth passes and that beauty isn’t ours to keep. She is the gift of life with its beautiful and melancholic constant ebb and flow."
- Revealed: The Real Girl from Ipanema.

The girl is Helô Pinheiro. (check!), (she is also the one in all of the pictures, exept for the first coloured one).

Only 17 when Jobim saw her the first time.
Shy and insicure of herself.
And she became the It Girl.
She was tall and tan and young and lovely, in his eyes.
And when she passes, each one she passes goes "Aaahh.."
And when she walks, she's like a samba that swings so cool and sways so gentle,
all in his eyes..

She was a real boom in the 60's, 70's and even 80's. Every single girl (and woman) wanted to be her. To evoke sensuality that entices men everywhere to dream. To be a fantasy of an exotic dream woman who embodies the elusive essence of everything that is desirable. But the thing is.. every woman can be and IS the Ipanema Girl, just in her most simple ways.. don't you think?

Listen on youtube the song by Astrud (click!)