Carlos Gardel

Carlos Gardel (11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was an enormously popular tango singer from Argentina (see birth-place controversy) who was killed in an airplane crash at the height of his career. For many music fans, Gardel embodies

Carlos Gardel (11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was an enormously popular tango singer from Argentina (see birth-place controversy) who was killed in an airplane crash at the height of his career. For many music fans, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango, a musical form and dance which evolved in the immigrant neighborhoods of Montevideo and Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century.

Gardel possessed a dark, sensual baritone voice which he deployed with unerring musicality and dramatic phrasing, creating miniature masterpieces among the hundreds of three-minute tangos which he recorded during his lifetime. Together with his long-term collaborator, lyricist Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel also wrote several classic tangos, notably "Mi Buenos Aires Querido", "Volver", "Por una cabeza".