This blog has been featuring quite a lot of strong and dramatic lyrics and I repeat, tango is not for the faint of heart. However, there’s also an abundant amount of cheerful, funny and derisive material to be found. A quite amusing element in tango is, as far as I am concerned, the combination of lively music and sad or sarcastic lyrics, which tends to happen a lot. On the other hand, there are also a few tangos that combine a sad melody and happy lyrics, and today I will give an example of that.
In my view, Jorge Ortiz has one of the most gloomy and desperate voices in the whole genre and he is rather famous among modern-day dancers because his tracks with Biagi are very popular. However, he has also done a couple of songs with Miguel Caló, which tend to sound much more dramatic than those with Raúl Berón. Therefore, it may come as a surprise to some that the following song is actually very cheerful (OK – while ignoring the sad overtone for a moment). By the way, I think this poem has an unique kind of flow, there is something very smooth about it, like an express train among tango lyrics.
Embrujamiento 
jantango
/ September 15, 2013Thanks for this one. It’s my all-time favorite Calo, and I didn’t know the singer until today. Milongueros say a tango is a complete opera in three minutes, and this one proves it. I knew only the first two words of the lyrics. Your translation is wonderful. I didn’t know the other definition for extranarse is to be surprised nor that apocado is shy. That’s why I thought the lyric began “I miss you.” I’ll dance with an understanding of the story.
These lyrics must strike a chord in the hearts of many milongueros viejos in the milongas of Buenos Aires.
Caroline
/ September 16, 2013I find Jorge Ortiz’s voice such full of sorrow.
There is one Biagi’s vals which makes me smile whenever I hear the first notes and then Ortiz starts singing and the happiness blends with melancholia.