This installment is a contemporary tribute to the bossa nova sound, especially the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim.

This release has proven to be one of the Red Hot series' more successful projects, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars for AIDS charities around the world.

Along with them, many contemporary pop music performers are featured on this release, including Incognito, David Byrne, Sting and PM Dawn.

Its release coincided with a renewed interest in tourism to Brazil and the Tropicalia music revival of the early 1960s.

In part, the success of the initial album has prompted a second Red Hot + Rio project, a live concert event slated for December 2008 in New York City's Brooklyn Academy of Music.