Gricel

Tango Club

In this episode, we talked about a beautiful, sad love story, Gricel, the love story that was immortalized in a tango song. The most interesting of this, is that this story goes beyond this 3 minute tango written by Jose Maria Contursi, because it’s actually a real love story, and in real life had a happy ending. This tango tells the story of a character who tries to win Gricel’s heart. He finally succeeds on this, but he shouldn’t do it. He then lost her love and he regrets for this the rest of his life. Jose Maria Contursi was an awesome lyricist, a close friend of Carlos Gardel and he composed for the biggest tango orchestras and singers. Legends says that after a passionate and forbidden romance, Contursi left Grisel because he was married and they both propose themselves to forget each other, but they find that forgetting was impossible. Over time, Contursi is obsessed with the memory of his beloved Gricel and, from then on, in every one of his tangos (including the this one named "Gricel"), disappointment and unhappiness are present. This tango was written in 1942 and Mariano Mores, another great musician and composer put music to these beautiful words. It could have been the plot of a soap opera. Or a radio drama. But the story is not only real, it also became a symbol in the world of tango, where the musical poetry of Buenos Aires became universal. The title of the legend has only six letters: Gricel .