Astrud Gilberto (born March 29, 1940) is a Brazilian singer best known for her samba and bossa nova music. She is best known as the vocalist on the Grammy Award winning song "The Girl from Ipanema".
Suffered from Stage Fright and Astrud Gilberto did not perform at night-clubs for many years, claiming that she felt intimidated by the closeness of the audience in clubs; for that reason, she would only perform at larger venues, such as theatres
Having taken acting classes at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting to help her overcome her difficulties with stage fright, in 1982 she resumed performing at clubs again. Subsequently, paradoxically, Astrud Gilberto has broken the attendance record of several club venues, such as for example, "Fat Tuesdays" (in NYC), SOB’s (in NYC), and "The Jazz Café" (in London). In 1992, Astrud Gilberto was the first Jazz artist to perform at the "House of Blues" (Chicago).[
Gilberto is also a fine artist, and an ardent advocate of animal rights.