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Las cantantes y cancionistas - Volver Tango

Key facts

"Las cantantes y cancionistas" is an episode of the Volver Tango documentary series about women who sang tango. The film calls the 1920s and 1930s the cancionistas' period of greatest splendour. The film says radio was a main stage for the women who entered a tango world it describes as previously almost entirely male.

Video 00:01:19 · Video 00:03:33

Origins and the great cancionistas

The film traces the cancionistas back to the cupletistas of the 1910s and to women who sang in circus and theatre, including members of the Podestá family. It also discusses the bandoneonist and bandleader Paquita Bernardo, noting that she left no recordings. Next come profiles of Rosita Quiroga, whom the film presents as a pioneer of a spoken, streetwise style, and Azucena Maizani, who often performed in men's clothes. Later segments cover Mercedes Simone, Ada Falcón, Libertad Lamarque, Sofía Bozán, Tita Merello and Nelly Omar.

Video 00:04:28 · Video 00:07:59 · Video 00:12:11 · Video 00:14:38 · Video 00:27:51 · Video 00:31:20 · Video 00:18:14 · Video 00:25:07

Decline and return

According to the film, the dance orchestras that rose from the mid-1930s favoured the male orchestra singer. Women were left mostly with radio and touring. Interviewees name Nelly Vázquez, who sang with Aníbal Troilo, as one of the few exceptions. The film says new voices began coming from theatre and television in the late 1950s. It places Susana Rinaldi and Amelita Baltar in a later group that emerged near the end of the 1960s. It links Baltar with Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer. The episode ends by describing the 1990s as a revival of women's leading role in sung tango.

Video 00:34:09 · Video 00:37:39 · Video 00:40:55 · Video 00:42:22 · Video 00:45:06 · Video 00:48:22 · Video 00:52:04 · Video 00:43:49

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Volver Tango

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