Bossa nova emerged in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s as a softer, more intimate way of playing samba. Its turning point came in 1959, when João Gilberto recorded tracks on the album Chega de Saudade, using a guitar rhythm that stressed the weak beats and a quiet singing style. Antônio Carlos Jobim supplied the harmonies and Vinicius de Moraes the lyrics, while young musicians gathered in the nightclubs of Copacabana's Beco das Garrafas. The style spread abroad after a 1962 concert at Carnegie Hall and the 1964 album Getz/Gilberto, which won a Grammy.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.