Despite having picked up influences of sound from distant places, tango became one of the most recognized and unmistakable sounds of the 20th century. Its hermetics, language, musicality, the form of dance, signing and feeling put it in an unreachable place. It is a passion. It is lived and is felt as such, or simply is not understood.

The first origin of tango is etymological. “Tango” was the name given to get togethers held by black people from Africa that lived in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, the two birthplaces of the music. At that time “tango” had two meanings. It was not only a meeting place, but also the music they played.

Other immigrants to the Río de la Plata region also made their contributions to the music nearly a half century later. In the last 25 years of the 19th century, Montevideo and Buenos Aires had an immigrant population that exceeded the local population. As in most port cities, houses of ill repute flourished, and tango was the music played there. “Brillando en las noches del puerto desierto, como un viejo faro, la cantina está llamando a las almas que no tienen puerto porque han olvidado las rutas del mar” Tango’s music and dance came about from cultural promiscuity that was prevalent in the region at the end of the 19th century.

Until the arrival of the accordion, the violin, flute and guitar were the instruments used by musicians, who mainly played existing melodies, such as the polka or the habanera from Cuba. The accordion, which was brought by German immigrants at the end of the 19th century, would become the instrument “with the definitive sound of lament that tango has.” “¡Che papusa, oí!... los acordes melodiosos que modula el bandoneón “¡Che papusa, oí!... los latidos melodiosos de mi pobre corazón”

But tango was born to be danced to and the dance accompanies the melodies of the accordion. Regarding its origin, “there are some hypotheses and few certainties. Some say that the dance comes from the caricature-like movements that the white newcomers imitated of the black dances (…) from candombe. Others say it was inherited, a fusion of Spanish dances, such as habanera and tango from Andalusia. In any case, this dance that took form in the regional brothels maintained their prior traits. As a basic principle, the couple is intertwined. Later, the couple makes their own moves individually, without separating from each other.”

In the early 20th century, the lyrics of tango began to play a fundamental role. Vidart writes, “although it is true that since its beginnings tangos had lyrics, in the first era, they had a secondary role (…)”. Little by little, tango lyrics became fundamental pictures of a state of being. With its lyrics, tango transcends music to become a lifestyle. According to Mafud, tango is “metaphysics and psychology that sustains a sum of Rio de la Plata characteristics.” For Mafud, the tango man is “alone, silent, unsatisfied in love, a cultivator of friendships and of maternal love, with a great wisdom for social consciousness (…) .

Tango lyrics frequently use slang to convey their messages. Lyrics often revolve around a cruel and ferocious world that appears and unjust and sadistic. “Verás que todo es mentira, verás que nada es amor, que al mundo nada le importa… ¡Yira!..., ¡yira! Aunque te quiebre la vida, Aunque te muerda el dolor, No esperes nunca una ayuda, Ni una mano, ni un favor” Unrequited love: “ella sí que me olvidó Y hoy frente a su puerta La oigo contenta, Percibo su risa Y escucho que a otro Le dice las mismas Mentiras que a mí. Alma, Que en pena vas errando, Acercate a su puerta, Suplicale llorando”. Betrayal, and the man that must respond as such to a woman: “Entrá nomás, ya que has vuelto, Si ya estoy casi vengado, Pues en tu mismo pecado La penitencia llevás. Pero de hoy en adelante, Si en mi techo te cobijo Serás la madre de mi hijo, Pero mi mujer, jamás” The love that is never forgotten: “Si supieras Que aún dentro de mi alma Conservo aquel cariño Que tuve para ti, Quién sabe si supieras Que nunca te he olvidado, Volviendo a tu pasado Te acordarás de mí. (…) Sin embargo, Te llevo en el recuerdo Con el cariño santo Que tuve para amar Y sos en todas partes Pedazo de mi vida Una ilusión querida Que no podré olvidar” Lyrics with “social denouncement” content also are part of some of the best tangos: “Hoy resulta que es lo mismo Ser derecho que traidor, Ignorante, sabio, chorro, Generoso, estafador. Todo es igual…nada es mejor… Lo mismo un burro Que un gran profesor. No hay aplazaos Ni escalafón, Los inmorales nos han igualao. Si uno vive en la impostura Y otro roba en la ambición Da lo mismo que si es cura, Colchonero, rey de bastos, Caradura o polizón…”

Tango eventually arrived in Paris as a musical style and dance, but especially as a culture. The music and dance that had come about in the outskirts and marginalized areas of Montevideo and Buenos Aires crossed the ocean to the City of Lights “to light the fire of the return path dressed in a brand new respectability”. Paris became a new obligatory destination, but also leading to nostalgia of the city, neighborhood and friends that were left behind: “Lejano Buenos Aires, Qué lindo que has de estar, Ya va para diez años Que me viste zarpar” “Mi Buenos Aires querido, Cuando yo te vuelva a ver, No habrá más penas ni olvido”.

After being the protagonist of the 1920s with Carlos Gardel as its main figure, tango began to feel the effects of the economic depression in the 1930s. In addition, with the appearance of sound in movies, many musicians who worked to provide music for silent films were out of work. However, in 1935, tango began to recover the brilliance of a former age, in particular thanks to director Juan D’Arienzo, who led his orchestra “with a fast and marked rhythm (that is) very stimulating for dancing.” At that time, the musical style enjoyed a new period of popularity. Top orchestras proliferated and performed at many dance halls.

After this period, practically no danceable tango has been composed. Nearly all songs played today at dance halls comes from the 1940s. The boom in tango was due in great part to the socio-economic conditions that the Second World War brought about in the Río de la Plata region. The financial boom was accompanied by a growth in music from the United States and Europe, which opened the door to new musicians and composers, and to those had not been able to achieve success until that time.

The decades of the 60s and 70s brought about a transformation in tango. This transformation is due principally to one man: Ástor Piazzolla. The influences of classical music, especially Stravinsky and Bartok, in which Piazzolla placed in his tango compositions, divided the waters between those who followed him and those who did not. In the 1980s, thanks to the Tango Argentino show, the genre became more popular and fashionable again. Almost without warning, people in Montevideo and Buenos Aires began to dance tango again, as did fans in Tokyo and New York. Today, well into the 21st century, tango again has reinvented itself. And again, the Río de la Plata region was the birthplace of this new transformation. Groups such as Bajofondo Tango Club and Gotan Project began to fuse electronic music with tango to update its sound for the new century. Despite the musical transformation, the nostalgic lyrics still refer to past eras.

Tango still remains relevant for dancers, radio listeners and even young people who discover the music in its new rhythmic transformations. Carlos Gardel It is not known with certainty if Carlos Gardel was born in Toulouse, France or Tacuarembó, Uruguay. His birth date cannot be confirmed either. Those who say he was born in Europe believe his birthday was 11 December 1890 and those who say he was born in Uruguay believe it was three years earlier. What is known is that he lived in Buenos Aires since he was a child (he used to say he had been born in Buenos Aires “at the age of 2 and a half”) and became an Argentine citizen in 1923.

Gardel is tango’s greatest singer and became a legend when he died in Medellín, Colombia on 24 June 1935. He was known for his voice even as a child. He sang in the Abasto neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where neighbors called him el morocho del Abasto. In 1911, Gardel met Uruguayan composer and singer José Razzano and later formed a duo that toured Buenos Aires, Montevideo and parts of Brazil and Spain. In 1925, Razzano left the stage due to vocal chord damage and took charge of Gardel’s financial affairs.

By the mid 1920s, Gardel was famous. He recorded a few records for Columbia, starred in some silent films and was recognized throughout Europe and the Río de la Plata region. In the mid 1930s, Gardel reached New York and filmed The Big Broadcast with Bing Crosby in 1934. A year later, during a Central American and Caribbean tour, Gardel died in a plane accident in Medellín, Colombia. “Carlos Gardel sings better every day” is a popular saying. As of 1996, Uruguay celebrates Carlos Gardel Day on 24 June. On 1 September 2003, the voice of Carlos Gardel was declared World Heritage by UNESCO. Julio Sosa Julio Sosa is the other Uruguayan tango great. Although his birthplace is not disputed (Las Piedras, 2 February 1926), like Gardel he won fame in Buenos Aires, where he arrived at around age 20. At that time, Sosa had already been married and divorced and had worked at various jobs before becoming a professional musician.

He arrived in Buenos Aires in 1949 and recorded more than 50 songs with well known Argentine orchestras. Around this time, an Argentine journalist called Sosa the “varón del tango” (tango man) and was known as such from then on. Sosa was a fan of racing cars and died in a traffic accident on 26 November 1964 at age 38. La Cumparsita La Cumparsita is considered “the hymn of tango” and was written by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez of Uruguay in 1917. Lyrics were added in 1926. At a time when the “tango-song” was fashionable, an instrumental like La Cumparsita was destined to fall into oblivion. For that reason, in 1924, Argentine composer Pascual Contursi put lyrics to the song and presented it as Si Supieras. The song gained popularity with a version sung by Carlos Gardel. Matos Rodríguez started a lawsuit against Contursi that was resolved decades later after both men had died. After the lawsuit, the music of the song was attributed to Matos Rodríguez. Contursi’s lyrics were also recognized as official. As such, La Cumparsita has two different “real” lyrics. On 2 February 1998, Uruguay declared La Cumparsita as the country’s “cultural hymn.”