What is lunfardo in tango lyrics?
Lunfardo is the slang of the Buenos Aires tenements, which tango turned into literature: the lyricists of the 1920s and 30s wrote of love, betrayal and nostalgia in it, and the first sung tango, Mi noche triste (1917), opens with a lunfardo line. A 1940s radio ban only made the words more popular.
The lyrics and lunfardo
Lunfardo, the slang of the Buenos Aires tenements, would have died with them if tango had not turned it into literature. The lyricists of the twenties and thirties wrote songs of love, betrayal and nostalgia in it, and the grandchildren of the people who invented the words still sing them. The first sung tango, "Mi noche triste" of 1917, opens with a lunfardo line: "Percanta que me amuraste", woman, you left me.
In the forties a radio commission banned lunfardo in songs, and singers had to say muchacha instead of mina. The ban made the words more popular.
- Tango turned lunfardo into literature; the lyricists of the 1920s and 30s wrote songs of love, betrayal and nostalgia in it.
- "Mi noche triste" (1917), by Pascual Contursi, is the first sung tango.
- In the 1940s a radio commission banned lunfardo in songs, and singers had to replace mina with muchacha and laburo with trabajo.
El lunfardo habría muerto con los conventillos si el tango no lo hubiera convertido en literatura.Lunfardo would have died with the tenements if tango had not turned it into literature.
Un verso de "Mi noche triste", de 1917, el primer tango cantado: "Percanta que me amuraste / en lo mejor de mi vida".A line from "Mi noche triste", of 1917, the first sung tango: "Woman, you left me / in the best part of my life".