Carlos Gardel is the most famous Tango singer of all time. Already a successful folk singer, he recorded what many people think of as the first real Tango song, Mi Noche Triste, in 1917. His fame grew and grew, so that it was natural that the first sound film footage shot in Argentina was of Gardel singing tangos. His feature film career began in France, making Spanish language films for the huge Spanish speaking market. He then went to the United States, again making films in Spanish. Although his career as a singer was long, he flowered as a composer only in the last few years of his life, after the move to the United States. He wrote the music for all the tangos he recorded there, many of which became classics. He died in a plane crash in 1935, in his forties.
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