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Artist
Carlos Gardel (born Charles Romuald Gardes; 11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was an Argentine tango singer, songwriter, composer and actor, and is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of tango. Gardel died in an airplane crash at the height of his career, becoming an archetypal tragic hero mourned throughout Latin America. For many, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango style. He is commonly referred to as "Carlitos", "El Zorzal" (The Song Thrush), "The King of Tango", "El Mago" (The Magician), "El Morocho del Abasto" (The Brunet Boy from Abasto), and "El Mudo" (The Mute). Gardel possessed a baritone voice deployed with unerring musicality and dramatic phrasing, creating miniature masterpieces among the hundreds of three-minute tangos which he recorded during his lifetime. Together with his long-term collaborator, lyricist Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel also wrote several classic tangos, notably 'Mi Buenos Aires querido', 'Amores de Estudiante', 'Soledad', 'Volver', 'Por una cabeza' and 'El día que me quieras'. Gardel was born to unmarried 25-year-old laundress Berthe Gardes, the baby registered under the name Charles Romuald Gardes in Toulouse, France, on 11 December 1890. The father of the baby boy was listed on his birth certificate as "unknown"; eleven days later Berthe Gardes signed a statement establishing the baby's father as Paul Laserre, a married man who left Toulouse a few months before the baby was born. Berthe Gardes left Toulouse a few years later, likely