FEMALE ARGENTINE TANGO SINGERS YOU MUST KNOW
You might have been used to dancing to a classic Argentine Tango orchestra with male singers. More often than not, DJ’s prefer playing orchestras with male singers because some milonguero and milonguera are not comfortable dancing to pitchy female singers in the background.
However, pitchy as they may seem, female tango singers can bring new flavor to a dancing experience on a milonga.
Aside from that, some of these singers have created a name for themselves. Some are good such as pushing for a woman’s strong persona in a patriarchal society while some underwent a scandal of some sort. Whatever it may be, the history that they created during the Golden Age of Tango will surely make their name a huge contribution in Argentine Tango’s rich musical history.
credits to the rightful owner of the photos
Here are some of the few notable female singers who have paved the way for the new generation female singers, that are worth checking out and dancing to.
Most commonly called “La Ñata Gaucha” or “Funny-face Cowgirl”, Azucena Maizani portrayed an aggressive image for a woman by performing using masculine apparels such as criollo cowboy attire and suits.
She was considered the female counterpart of her good friend, Carlos Gardel, for appearing often on television.
BRIEF HISTORY:
Azucena was born on the 17th of November 1902 in the city of Buenos Aires. Due to financial difficulties that her family faced, her parents were forced to send her to some family members who live on Martin Garcia Island, a place in the middle of the River Plate, halfway between Argentina and Uruguay, when she was five because of health problems.
After completing her grade school education there, she went back to Buenos Aires and started to work as a seamstress in a shirt factory and in a fashion house by the young age of 17. Because of her love for singing, she started singing as an amateur by this time.
“As stated on Francisco Canaro’s Memorias,
‘One evening at the Boite Pigalle, he was approached by a young girl who wanted to sing. He says that she was a ‘brunette in splendid youth’, so he gladly gave her the opportunity to make a short rehearsal during the intermission, without even knowing her name, then he introduced her as Azabache and she sang two tunes.’
CAREER:
Her career started when she attended a party with her friend who was a well-known singer at the time, Delia Rodríguez. This is where she met Enrique Pedro Delfino, a pianist, who was very impressed with her singing. The latter then introduced her to the owner of a theater business, Pascual Carcavallo, who eventually hired her after hearing her sing.
She debuted on a comical sketch by Alberto Vaccarezza entitled "A mí no me hablen de penas" (Don't tell me about your troubles) on July 27, 1923. This is where she sang the tango "Padre nuestro" (Our Father) and according to Todo Tango,
it achieved an immediate response from the public, who requested her five encores of that piece.
Her success continued on to radio, on disc and other theater plays. In fact, according to Wikipedia,
She was paid 200 pesos a month for her theater debut and she began to earn the same amount in radio but for each recording.
An important radio station in Buenos Aires, Radio Prieto, hired her in 1928. And on the next year, she gave her first film performance in the silent film, La modelo de la calle Florida (The Florida Street Model), directed by Julio Irigoyen.
She joined Roberto Zerrillo, a violinist, in 1929 and toured throughout the country. They also traveled to Spain and Portugal for a few years and returned in 1932.
In her absence, new female singers emerged but in her own effort, she quickly regained her popularity and was cast for the first Argentinian full-length film with sound, Tango in 1933. Although she did not sing in the movie directly, her voice was heard singing “La canción de Buenos Aires” along with an image of her face as the credits rolled.
This solidified her popularity and in the next few years she did radio acting, recorded albums and played minor roles in a few more movies.
COMPOSITIONS:
Based on an article written by Todo Tango,
Azucena was romantic and temperamental. She sang with emotion the lyrics which portrayed humble neighborhood girls´ love affairs and disappointments, in fact, stories of her own youth.
Perhaps this is how she managed to pen her most famous work, Pero yo sé in 1928. This composition became so successful, with its sorrowful lyrics, it was recorded and interpreted by numerous artists such as Ángel Vargas.
Pero yo se que metido
vivis penando un querer,
que queres hallar olvido
cambiando tanta mujer
Yo se que en las madrugadas
cuando las farras dejas,
sentis tu pecho oprimido
por un recuerdo querido
y te pones a llorar.
But I know that withdrawn
you live suffering for a love,
that you want to forget
going from women to women.
I know that late in the night
when you are done with your binge,
you feel sick in your heart
by a dear memory
and start crying.
In her career, she managed to have more than 270 recordings, a few movie castings and compositions. Despite her popularity in the 30s, her presence started to decline in the 40s and she died almost forgotten on January 15, 1970.
ADA FALCON
As the lady nicknamed “La Empreza del Tango”, Ada Falcon was probably one of the famous names not only for her undying beauty but also for her long-lasting sentimental relationship with the orchestra leader, Francisco Canaro.
BRIEF HISTORY:
Aída Elsa Ada Falcone or most commonly known as Ada Falcon was born on the 17th of August 1905 in Buenos Aires. She had two older sisters, Amanda and Adhelma, who were also both singers.
According to an article written by The Educated Tanguero,
Ada decided in the age of 4 that she would become a singer and finally became one of the biggest female Tango singers under the notorious influence of her mother.
CAREER:
She started acting at a young age. By 11, she publicly debuted and started to act as La Joyita Argentina or The Little Argentinean Jewel. When she was 13, she appeared in her first movie, El festín de los Caranchos.
Her musical style and singing were clearly defined by Todo Tango,
Ada Falcón had a range that went from mezzosoprano to soprano in the high notes, a lightly deep-throated tone and a certain pretension of lyrical warbling which gave her a personal and unique style. All this was allied to her natural temper that put the emotion in the right place. Her singing was moving, of romantic fashion, with the feeling that she addressed to a lost love. In spite of the dark color of her voice, she was characterized by a wailing tone.
Her first recording as a tango soloist for Victor Records happened in 1925 with Osvaldo Fresedo's orchestra. However, she rose to fame when she started singing for the man of her life, the director, Francisco Canaro.
As stated by The Educated Tanguero,
Actually, Ada was at that time a 24-year-old blonde with almost hypnotic intense green eyes. Francisco Canaro fell in love and wrote the Tango Vals “Yo no se que me han hecho tus ojos” for her, including the very romantic lyrics.
Together, they recorded about 180 times starting from 1929 with the refrain of the tango “La morocha”, and ending in 1938.
LIFESTYLE, LOVELIFE AND LEAVING THE LIMELIGHT:
Because of her ethereal beauty, success and outstanding talent, she accumulated an enormous amount of wealth. It is said from Todo Tango that,
Men admire her beauty and sing eulogies to her green eyes.
She drives a red convertible automobile, lives in a three- story house in the most residential area of the city, and displays jewels and furs.
Despite all of her accomplishments and the hundreds of men bowing on her feet, she fell in love with a married man, Francis Canaro. Ada was said to insist on Canaro’s separation from his wife, Martha Gessaume. However, when Canaro was advised by his lawyer about the financial consequence of such separation, the thought of divorce flew out of the window.
In an anecdote in 1938, it is said that
it took place during an interval of the rehearsal of the orchestra, when Ada was seated on Canaro's knees. All of a sudden the door of the room where they were was opened and La Francesa, nickname with which Canaro's wife was known appeared. She opened her handbag, drew a gun and furiously threatened Ada who went out running. A few days later the artistic separation of the singer with the orchestra took place.
The Educated Tango also added that,
Ada told Canaro: “I no longer sing for you”.
After the incident, she then suddenly withdrew from the public eye in late 1942. She rarely leaves her house and if she does, she would go to mass dressed entirely in black, face covered by a net or sunglasses, wearing a white turban and white gloves. The mystery for this behavior was never uncovered, some say that the devastation of her love life was one cause. When she entered an isolated convent in the hills of Córdoba Province as tertiary nun, she totally abandoned her artistic life and singing career and lived in poverty and seclusion along with her mother.
Her last disc with two numbers were the tango “Corazón encadenado” and the waltz “Viviré con tu recuerdo”.
Lorena Muñoz and Sergio Wolf created a documentary entitled “Yo no se que me han hecho tus ojos”, which was aired in 2003. This is the last interview that Ada made before her death in 2002. In here, she was asked for the reason of her seclusion and her answer was,
“I was locked in here, because I have to expiate a sin”.
In 2010, a TV miniseries was created in Buenos Aires and her so-called love life or scandal was the basis for it entitled Lo que el tiempo nos dejó: Te quiero.
TITA MERELLO
Probably one of the female singers who has created a strong image for herself, Tita Merello was widely known for her blatant honesty of her background and the characters that she portrays.
BRIEF HISTORY:
Born as Laura Ana Merello on the 11th of October 1904, in a tenement in the neighborhood of San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Tita Merello, just like Azucena Maizani, was born on a financially deprived family. Due to this, she experienced a very rough childhood. With her father dying because of tuberculosis on her toddler years, Tita’s mother was left to fend for her and her younger half-brother, Pascual Anselmi.
At a young age, she was sent from places to places struggling to live. She even went to work as a maid without pay and when diagnosed with tuberculosis, was sent to a farm near Magdalena to work in exchange for room and board.
Despite of all these circumstances, Tita wasn’t embarrassed to tell people about her childhood experience and as quoted from Wikipedia even told everyone that,
she knew hunger and fear firsthand, as she lived it every day of her childhood, never going to school or learning to read or write.
On an article created by Todo Tango, she also went to say,
“My childhood was short. Childhood for poor people is shorter than for rich children. It was sad, poor and ugly”. When she was older, she confessed without embarrassment, “Having worked as a whore”.
At a young age of 12 she started to work in a club called Ba Ta Clán, which was described as a second-rate theater, nearly pornographic, where the chorus girls were called “bataclanas”. By the age of 13 she debuted in a play called Las vírgenes de teres and started working as a showgirl in the Rosita Rodriguez Company at Teatro Avenida.
Having possessed no angelic voice and was singing out of tune, Tita was booed off the stage and has vowed never to sing again. Poverty and hunger on the other hand has another opinion.
When she was 16, her mother succumbed to tuberculosis too and it left her wandering from places to places, again. This is when she became a vedette and was known as "La Vedette Rea”.
As written in Todo Tango, a famous theater critic who knew her said that,
“She is one of the most temperamental, most vehement actresses and she has the strongest temper in the national scene, and she is besides quite witty, very fast for a reply, much intelligent, and interprets tangos as an actress. Each tango is a little theater play”.
CAREER:
She started to act in minor roles in movies in 1923 but her abilities as a dramatic actress was revealed in a 1937 movie, La fuga. The producers and directors were amazed with the naturalness of her acting and expression.
One of her famous saying was,
“My best character is the interpretation of my own self. A dramatic actress cries for herself when she interprets a theater character”.
After La fuga, she went on to perform on theater runs and did a few more films. She has yet to create her signature song until Ivo Pelay and Francisco Canaro’s play, Buenos Aires de ayer y de hoy, contained the song "Se dice de mí". This song has become her most recognized song.
Although most of her works were focused on films, she came back to recording studio in the year 1954 and recorded unforgettable records such as “El choclo”, “Arrabalera Niño bien”, “Pipistrela” and “Llamarada passional”.
Llamarada passional was her penned song for the actor Luis Sandrini, the love of her life. They had a decade-long affair but Luis Sandrini instead married the younger actress, Malvina Pastorino, in Uruguay in 1952.
La voz de un hombre me persigue en el recuerdo...
En el recuerdo tormentoso del ayer,
Era una voz que suplicaba a mi conciencia:
¡Que fuera buena!... ¡Que lo quisiera bien!...
Son mis sentidos que te gritan que regreses
Es mi tormenta la que aflora con tu voz,
Es llamarada el quererte y no tenerte
Saber que late, para ti, mi corazón.
The voice of a man haunts me in memory
In the stormy memory of yesterday
It was a voice that pleaded with my conscience
That it was good!... That I wanted it well
It's my senses that scream at you to come back
It is my storm that emerges with your voice
It's a flare to love you and not have you
Know that it beats, for you, my heart
On the Christmas Eve of 2002, Tita Merello finally went back to the Creator at the ripe age of 98.
All these female tango singers obviously had rougher experience than the male singers we are all familiar with. But they had managed to survive in the Argentine Tango music scene and their music has been translated and remade by younger musicians.
In fact, some of the music could be hard to imagine that it was originally sung by these singers.