Daniel Melingo

Daniel Melingo began his journey in the bustling Buenos Aires rock scene of the late 1970s, playing saxophone and lending his distinctive voice to bands that channeled the rebellious spirit of the time. But a profound personal and artistic transformation awaited. Drawn back to the cultural roots of his city, he plunged into the world of tango, not to merely reproduce its classics but to reanimate them with a punkish, theatrical sensibility. Melingo became a curator of tango's underworld, resurrecting forgotten, lurid lyrics from the early 20th century and setting them to arrangements that could swing from hauntingly sparse to wildly cacophonous. With his band, often dubbed Los Ramones del Tango, he toured the world, presenting a version of Argentina that was both nostalgically aromatic and sharply contemporary. He is less a revivalist and more a necromancer, conjuring the ghosts of Buenos Aires' brothels and bars for a modern audience.