The Girl from Ipanema
The Girl from Ipanema by Antonio Carlos Jobim is 120 BPM — Allegro (fast).
Half-time 60 BPM · Double-time 240 BPM · released 1964
Song DNA
About as calm as music gets here. Even and easy to follow, it makes good background. It moves moderately between quiet and loud with nothing abrupt to catch you off guard, clean in texture, with gentle vocals riding over it at a brisk, driving tempo. Across the library, it reads gentler than 91% of everything we’ve measured.
Cultural Context
Bossa nova is a genre that blends samba and jazz, originating in Brazil in the late 1950s.
Listening Prompt
Imagine yourself on a sunny beach in Rio de Janeiro.
What to Expect
From Getz/Gilberto (1964), this track carries a safe sensory rating with one of the most compressed dynamic ranges in this catalog: a 4 out of 10, meaning the quiet-to-loud span is genuinely narrow. No sudden changes, smooth texture, and high predictability combine to create a listening environment with very few variables to manage. At 120 beats per minute, the tempo moves lightly — brisk on paper, but not pressured in feel. Soft vocals fit within the overall calm without demanding attention. Moods are calm, contemplative, and warm, and the track is recommended for focus, meditation, and sleep. If your primary concern is being startled by volume shifts, a dynamic range of 4 makes this a particularly forgiving choice. The safe sensory rating and smooth texture confirm what the numbers suggest — steady, enclosed, and unlikely to demand more from a listener than they can give. Misophonia trigger data wasn't recorded for this track.
Hear it the way it was made
The right gear changes everything.
Moods: calm, contemplative, warm
"The Girl from Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jobim
120 BPM, dynamic range 4/10, smooth texture, soft vocals. Sits in the middle band — neither built for stillness nor pitched at workout intensity. Whether it works for a given moment depends more on mood and lyrical content than on the acoustic profile. The full sensory breakdown follows.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 4/10 is within the normal pop-mix band. There is variation between verse and chorus, but it's the kind of variation most listeners encounter routinely.
Sudden changes: none. Transitions are musically signaled — nothing will surprise you if you're only half-listening.
Texture: smooth.
Predictability is high — the song telegraphs what it will do next. A sensory-sensitive listener can usually guess where it's going without close attention.
Vocal style: soft vocals.
Where this sits in Antonio Carlos Jobim's catalog
We have 9 songs from Antonio Carlos Jobim in the library. Of those, 9 are rated Safe, 0 Moderate, and 0 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 4/10 sits above the artist average of 3.3, making it the #2 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
1964 context
Released in 1964. We have 132 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.1/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 1960s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Guides that may help
How fast is "The Girl from Ipanema"?
120 BPM — Upbeat (dance-pop / running warm-up)
Slow jog or recovery run pace. Matches a 120-140 stride-per-minute cadence.
Steady cardio, power walking, light weights.
Driving, getting ready in the morning, light party.
Browse more songs at 120 BPM.
When "The Girl from Ipanema" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
Maybe — fine for routine work, but the mid-song changes may pull attention during deep focus.
Yes — 120 BPM sits squarely in the running / cardio band. Matches natural stride cadence.
Maybe — calm overall, but tempo is a bit high for deep sleep. Better for winding down than falling asleep.
Yes — predictable enough for safe driving attention, interesting enough to stay engaged.
Yes — sits in the background without demanding attention.
Not really — it's pleasant but doesn't hit hard enough for cathartic listening.
Related reading
Editorial guides that cover this song's use cases, moods, or artist.
The Calmest Songs We’ve Ever Measured
Out of 19,144 songs scored for intensity, these measure as the very calmest — the gentlest, steadiest, lowest-energy music in the library. A…
Calming Music for Sensory Overload
How to find calming music during sensory overload. A warm guide for listeners whose senses take in more than they can filter, and for the pe…
low-intensity Music for Sleep: A Guide for Sensitive Listeners
Find music that helps you sleep without triggering sensory sensitivity. A guide to safe, predictable, gentle music for ears that notice ever…
Why this rating
We rate this song Safe because its dynamic range stays within our low-variance band, there are no unsignaled changes, and the texture and vocal style are both in the low-fatigue range. Our methodology uses an AND rule for Safe — a song has to clear every dimension to earn the rating.
See how “The Girl from Ipanema” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
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For calm, low-stimulation listening
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Rating last reviewed: 2026-06-20. Reviewed by the Music I Want editorial team against the documented methodology.
Think this rating is wrong? Contact the editor — every message is read and ratings get revised.
By the numbers: how this song compares
Computed from this song’s place among the 19,209 songs we’ve measured.
Where it sits in 19,000 songs
This sits near the calm end of everything we've measured — gentler than 91% of the 19,209 songs in the library. Its intensity reading of 19/100 comes from a dynamic range of 4/10, smooth texture, no sudden shifts, and soft vocals. It shares this stretch of the spectrum with thousands of other tracks, so the finer fingerprint below is what really separates it.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is an unusually steady, even volume: more extreme on that axis than 97% of everything we've measured. At the far opposite end of the library sit the songs built on full chaos — sudden changes, huge quiet-to-loud swings, and relentless energy — the kind of track this one is the counterpoint to.
Feels almost identical to
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
What it’s good for
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
1964 in context
The 132 songs we’ve measured from 1964 average a dynamic range of 6.1/10. At 4/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "The Girl from Ipanema"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "The Girl from Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jobim?
"The Girl from Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jobim has a tempo of 120 BPM (Allegro (fast)). At half-time that is 60 BPM, and at double-time 240 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "The Girl from Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jobim?
"The Girl from Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jobim rates as Low-Intensity. Dynamic range 4/10, no sudden changes, smooth texture. Our Low-Intensity rating means no single dimension triggers the higher-intensity thresholds.
How loud is "The Girl from Ipanema" — what is its dynamic range?
"The Girl from Ipanema" has a dynamic range of 4/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "The Girl from Ipanema" have sudden or surprising changes?
No. "The Girl from Ipanema" has no sudden unsignaled changes. Every transition is musically telegraphed.
What is "The Girl from Ipanema" best for?
In our library "The Girl from Ipanema" is recommended for: focus, meditation, sleep. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "The Girl from Ipanema" released?
"The Girl from Ipanema" is from 1964, on the album "Getz/Gilberto". It appears in our 1960s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "The Girl from Ipanema"?
We tag "The Girl from Ipanema" as calm, contemplative, warm. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "The Girl from Ipanema"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "The Girl from Ipanema" good for running?
Yes — at 120 BPM it sits in the running-cadence band (120-180 BPM). Match your stride to the beat and it keeps pace with most recreational runners.
Is "The Girl from Ipanema" good for studying?
Yes — low dynamic range (4/10) and no sudden changes means the song stays in the background without pulling focus.
Can I use "The Girl from Ipanema" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Dynamic range is too high — quiet moments will be ambushed by louder ones.
Should I listen to "The Girl from Ipanema"?
If you want gentle, low-arousal music, "The Girl from Ipanema" is a solid pick — Low-Intensity across every sensory dimension.
Songs with the same DNA
smooth texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
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