The bar where one of the most famous songs of all time was born

BarcelonaIt was the summer of 1962. The poet Vinícius de Moraes was meeting his friend Tom Jobim at the Bar Veloso in Ipanema. This neighborhood was becoming fashionable. For years it had been an isolated fishing area, until a tunnel was built to connect it to downtown Rio de Janeiro, which caused many young people to move to Ipanema beachfront because it was cheaper. Many were musicians who played at the botecos, the bars in the area, improvising new rhythms. De Moraes and Jobim were leading a musical revolution, that of the birth of the new bag, along with people like Salvador de Bahia singer João Gilberto, who had come to live in Rio. Bar Veloso was just an ordinary place on a corner of Montenegro Street. That couple went because it was close to Jobim's apartment, for another reason. It was here that they saw a brunette girl walking toward the beach who used to buy tobacco every day at the bar. Every day they had a coffee or a glass of wine, she would pass by. And thus, the most famous Brazilian song was born: Girl from Ipanema.

At the end of 1962, the song, initially titled Menina what's up, a song that would become famous when American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz discovered it and changed its name and rhythm. Getz was accompanied by Jobim in the studio, with João Gilberto singing it in Portuguese and Astrud Gilberto in English. It was an immediate hit that spent 96 weeks on the best-selling album charts, which made everyone want to cover it, including Frank Sinatra. A success that caught the young Helô Pinheiro, the girl who had inspired the song, somewhat off guard, and she found herself hounded by the press when De Moraes explained in 1965 that she was his muse. Abeto would go on to model, taking advantage of the craze sparked by the song in a time when Brazil was opening up to the world as a cheerful, fashionable country, capable of success in music and soccer. A success that was also exploited by the owner of Bar Veloso, who claimed that the song had been written on his boards. So the name of the bar changed, and it's now called Bar Garota de Ipanema. The name of Montenegro Street has also changed: it's now called Vinícius de Moraes Street.

The bar is full of photographs of the musicians, of Helô Abeto, of the sheet music... It's not the best bar in the city, it must be said. They charge a little more than usual for a meal that's nothing special, but people can't stop going to imagine what that summer of 1962 was like. Ipanema, however, still maintains that air of a young, happy neighborhood, open to the sea, where young people fall in love easily. Surely there are better bars to go to in such a charming city. But resisting the temptation to sit at a table with a window at the old Bar Veloso is hard to avoid.

Recommendation for traveling to Rio de Janeiro.

Song: Girl from Ipanema

Author: Vinícius de Moraes and Tom Jobim

Year: 1962