Homage | Tania
From "El portal del tango" we pay homage to the best woman singer.
There are some women in tango that do not fit in any place. It is similar to not liking the ready-made clothes because they are low cut or the sleeves are very short. For example, Sofía Bozán: Was she a comic actress, or a singer? What she was was unique. Another example: Tita Merello. Was she a comic actress, the biggest tragic of the national cinema, a commentator? In only one word: Tita. For example Tania: Was she different? Let´s see Who was near Discépolo? She was the one. Tania is the "vesre" (the other way around) for Anita, her real name. Her artistic surname was Visdi, "vesre" for Divis, her second surname. It was almost as if she had had the intuition that she would come to the city where the "vesre" is a language itself. She said that she was born on October 1st, 1908, in Toledo. Her father was a musician and her older sister broke down her marriage because she wanted to make her career in musical comedies. Tania started his career using the artistic name of "Lucianito" since her sister, Isabel, was "the Luciano". At the age of sixteen Tania was touring around Marruecos which was the "off" of Spain. In was the place where new artists performed before facing the advanced audience of the metropolis. In Marruecos Tania met the "Mexican" threesome and she fell in love with Antonio Fernadez, one of the group singers. After they got married she started to be known as Tania Mexican. Anita, her daughter, was born and in 1925 they came to Buenos Aires. Here they formed part of "Troupe Iberica". They performed in the Mayo Theatre and in the Cabaret Maipu Pigall and then, in the parks of Córdoba and Montevideo, after what they spent 15 months in Brazil. There, the Troupe was dissolved and almost did  her marriage. Tania began a soloist career and she had some popular tangos in her repertory. In 1927 she came back to Buenos Aires and her husband went to Spain. She started performing in the "Follies Bergere" and she also sang in the Casino theatre with the Roberto Firpo's Orchestra. She was "La Gallega de Toledo" (The Galician of Toledo) for everyone. His most successful song  "Esta noche me emborracho" ("Tonight I´ll get drunk) which was written by Discépolo and first sang by Azucena Maizani. One night Discepolo appeared at the Follies with José Razzano and José Pécora. He went there because he wanted to see the woman from Galicia that sang his tango. He liked it and they liked each other. Discepolo invited her to see his performance in Mustafá. She was horrified by the misery picture that she associated with the the real kind of life that he had, and she started to show him how beautiful life could be. They moved in together to a flat in Cangallo street ( now Juan D. Perón). During 24 years they were inseparable and, after their death, they are still so. We can not write about Tania without repeating his name. Tania made her debut  in Prieto radio station and then she appeared on Paris radio station, Belgrano radio station and Pueblo radio station and, in 1937 she was in Municipal radio station. In 1946 she sang in El Mundo radio with Mariano Mores Orchestra, in 1947 in Belgrano radio she sang with Discepolo on the show called "Como nacieron mis canciones" ("How my songs were born"). She recordered for Columbia Victor and Odeon. Her last recordings were done in Music Hall and Magenta. She was involved in 3 films: " El pobre Perez" ("The poor Perez"), (1937), "Cuatro Corazones" ("Four hearts") (1939), "Caprichosa y millonaria" ("Stubborn and millonaire"), the last two under the direction of Discepolo. She also made some theatre plays with him: "La perichona"(1932), "Wunder bar"(1933), "Winter garden"(1933), "Bum"(1948/50/51) and "Las preciosas Ridículas" (1967). In 1946 she went to Chile, Perú, Bolivia, Cuba and Mexico with Discepolo. There she sang in the cabaret "El Patio" with Enrique, where he talked. At their return she acted in Goyescas, after having made some performances in Chile, Montevideo and Europe. Discepolo's death in 1951and the fall of Perón´s government in 1955 deeply infuenced her career. After his death she went to Chile, Perú, Ecuador and Colombia. After 1955 she went to Europe to see and act in different shows. In 1959 she came back and performed in Deverkalt in front of San Martín park. She decided to have her own place called "Cambalache" like Discepolo's tango. In 1970 she made a show called "Tania canta y cuenta" ("Tania sings and tells") in "El Erizo Incandescente" ("The incandescent hedgehog"). Then it was her idea to write her memories.The book was written by Jorge Miguel Couselo. This book tells the true stories about Discepolo, the same stories that are kept hidden by critics and historians that write about the heros paying attention only to their personal preferences, and not telling all the truth.
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