Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

‘Blame it on the Bossa Nova’ Singer Eydie Gorme Dies at 84

Eydie Gorme, who won Grammy Awards singing solo and with her husband, Steve Lawrence, has died.

Gorme died at a Las Vegas hospital on Saturday following a brief illness, according to a statement by her spokesman. She was 84.

The statement said she was “surrounded by her husband, son and other loved ones at the time of her death.”

Dynamic Duo: Eydie Gorme and husband Steve Lawrence performed together for decades. Image by wikicommons

Gorme, whose 1963 song ”Blame It on the Bossa Nova” was her biggest hit and won her a Grammy nomination, performed in nightclubs, and as both a solo artist and with Lawrence since the mid-1950s. They performed in Las Vegas for many years. Gorme retired in 2009.

The couple had their own television variety show, “The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Show,” until Lawrence entered the Army for two years and Gorme went on the nightclub circuit.

“Eydie has been my partner onstage and in life for more than 55 years,” Lawrence said in a statement. “I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing. While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time.”

Gorme and Lawrence met in 1953 on a local program hosted by Steve Allen and later were regular cast members on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” hosted by Allen, when it began in 1954. They married in 1957.

Her first album with Lawrence, “We Got Us,” won a Grammy Award in 1960. She also won a 1967 Grammy for “If He Walked Into My Life.” In 1968, the couple starred in the Broadway musical “Golden Rainbow.”

Gorme was born Edith Garmezano to Sephardic Jewish parents in New York City. Her father was a tailor from Sicily and her mother was from Turkey.

She worked as a Spanish-language interpreter and later recorded in Spanish. Her song “Amor” became a hit throughout Latin America.

Gorme and Lawrence also had a son who died in his 20s of a heart condition.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.