Argentina Tours & Travel | Carlos Gardel, Tango Superstar
If an Argentina tour brings you to Buenos Aires, you'll hear the name Carlos Gardel, see his face plastered on posters all over town, and perhaps you'll come to understand why he is to tango what Elvis Presley was to rock and roll. Seven decades after his death, the ever-smiling baritone remains an icon beloved by tango lovers the world over.
Born Charles Romuald Gardes in Toulousse, December 11, 1890, (or some say in Uruguay in 1887), Carlos Gardel arrived as a toddler in the slum neighborhood of Abasto on the edge of Buenos Aires. His father was most likely a French businessman married to someone other than Gardel's mother. He began singing at an early age, and by the time he was a teenager, was performing at different gathering spots around the neighborhood, having gained the first of several stage monikers, "El Francesito."
He quit school at sixteen to work. His job as a claqueur (one who is paid to clap at a live performance of theatre or opera) introduced him to the world of professional singing. By 1910 he was singing in bars, first in a duo with Francisco Martino and then with fellow-folk singer, Jose Razzano. He was called El Moracho del Abasto (the swarthy one) and changed his surname to Gardel.
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The birth of the tango song
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Tango had always been danced to instrumental music. Then, practically overnight, Gardel made a place for the singer in the world of tango. In 1917, he premiered a song of Pascual Contursi's lyrics set to a Samuel Castriota tango, renaming it Mi Noche Trieste. It was a huge success, and an even bigger hit when it was released as a recording the following year, selling100,000 copies in just three months. Razzano bowed out of the duo in 1925 and from then on, Gardel performed as a soloist live, on radio and recordings. He became known as El Zorzal Criollo, the Songbird of Buenos Aires. His tours took him to the major cities of Europe including Paris where he debuted in 1928.
Among Gardel's most popular songs were Mis Buenos Aires querido ("My Beloved Buenos Aires"), Amores de estudiante ("Loves of a Student"), Soledad ("Solitude"), Volver ("To Return"), Por una cabeza ("By a Head") and El dia que me quieras ("The Day You Love Me").
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Gardel, the movie star
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Though he had dabbled in silent films and recorded ten songs as short films, Gardel found his niche in the thirties' musicals that developed out of film sound technology. He completed eight enormously successful Spanish-language films under contract with Paramount between 1931 and 1935 and a cameo performance in one of the studio's Hollywood films.
In 1935, he set out on a concert and film promotional tour of the Caribbean and northern South America. On June 24, in Medellin, Colombia, he and his lyricist, Alfredo Le Pera, age 35, boarded their plane at Olaya Herrera Airport to return to Buenos Aires. On take-off, it collided with another plane.
Tango fans the world over went into mourning. More than one committed suicide in her grief. A wake was held before a capacity crowd at Buenos Aires' Luna Park Stadium. His body also lay in state in several locations outside Argentina, including Montevido, Rio de Janeiro and New York before being buried in Buenos Aires' La Chacarita Cemetery.
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Life after death
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Death did nothing to diminish Gardel's importance in the world of tango or his significance as a symbol of triumph over adversity among portenos. On the fiftieth anniversary of his death and the centenary of his birth, celebrations took place around the world. In 1977, December 11th was declared National Tango Day in Argentina, so designated because it was the birth date of Gardel and another important figure of tango, violinist/conductor Julio De Caro. On this day each year, throngs of citizens pay their respects at Gardel's gravesite. On the anniversary of Gardel's death, a smaller number of fans make a similar pilgrimage there.
In 2003, the Museo Casa Carlos Gardel opened in his former Abasto home. A subway stop on the B-line and a city street in the Balvanera neighborhood bear his name. Gardel impersonators make a living as street performers. There is a saying in Buenos Aires, "Gardel sings better every day."
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To read more about Carlos Gardel, we suggest The Life, Music and Times of Carlos Gardel by the late Simon Collier, tango authority and Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. All 300 of Gardel's recorded songs are available on cassette and LP. There is also a 17-CD set of his songs, Su Obra Integral, and sixty of his songs are on the two-CD set, Las 60 Mejores Canciones de Carlos Gardel.
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To read more about Carlos Gardel in the movies, see our website article, "The Films of Carlos Gardel".
