Desafinado

This is my cover of “Desafinado”, a bossa nova song composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim with lyrics (in Portuguese) by Newton Mendonça. It was originally a response to critics who claimed that bossa nova was a new genre for singers who can’t sing. The English language lyrics were written by Jon Hendricks.

It was first recorded by Joao Gilberto in 1959.

Desafinado is a Portuguese word usually rendered into English as “Out of Tune”, or as “Off Key”.

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