On 6 July 2019, Gilberto died at his apartment in Rio de Janeiro.
His body was buried in Niterói following a private ceremony on 8 July 2019.
What happened to João Gilberto?
Writing in The Guardian after his death, Dom Phillips described Gilberto as “.. one of the country’s greatest musicians and composers, a reclusive genius in a nation of extroverts whose work recalled happier, more optimistic times for a deeply divided nation.”
In The Washington Post pop critic Chris Richards said, “His voice was one of the most intimate sounds of the 20th century – more melodic than a sigh, more rhythmic than chitchat, only just barely.
Every syllable that appeared on his lips carried an air of effortlessness, but Gilberto had worked hard to locate that sacred place where a human breath becomes music.”
Gilberto lived alone from around 2009. His final years were marked by money problems as well as declining health.
In 2011, he was sued and evicted from an apartment in Leblon by his landlord, Countess Georgina Brandolini d’Adda.
It was reported in December 2017 that his daughter Bebel was seeking control of his financial affairs because of his declining mental state and increasing indebtedness.
