Buenos Aires song
Among the thousands of songs dedicated to cities around the world, some, by decision of the crowds we call “popular taste”, become symbols of the places they are singing and, thusly, in part of their culture.
When it was composed, New York, New York (by Kander and Ebb, made famous, of course, by Frank Sinatra) spoke of a city where the song did not exist. Now, it is the background music for a place which is defined, partially, by the song itself.
Paris has, for instance, Les Champs-Elysées (by Pierre Delanoë and sung by Joe Dassin). Nearer, in time and geography, many associate the city of São Paulo with Sampa, by Caetano Veloso.
For Buenos Aires there are songs which are obvious candidates as symbols, specially in tango and by the most iconic of its singers. In Mi Buenos Aires querido, Gardel, author of the music but not the words, sings:
ciudad porteña de mi único querer,
oigo la queja de un bandoneón,
dentro del pecho pide rienda el corazón.
Gardel also recorded other classic, tango Buenos Aires (from 1923, lyrics by Manuel Romero and music by Manuel Joves):
Buenos Aires, mi tierra querida,
escuchá mi canción
que con ella va mi vida.
Around 80 years later, Charly García, perhaps in a bad day, sung in Sweet Home Buenos Aires (his version of Sweet Home Alabama, by American band Lynyrd Skynyrd):
lejos de la ciudad.
Mi Buenos Aires querido,
ya me alejé de la alta suciedad.
Sweet Home Buenos Aires,
donde el cielo es tan gris.
Sweet Home Buenos Aires,
condenado país.
What songs do you think that could be Buenos Aires’ symbols? Which songs do you like of the ones that represent other cities?
