Edmundo Rivero
Leonel Edmundo Rivero (June 8, 1911 – January 18, 1986) was an Argentine tango singer, composer, and impresario.
Also recorded as Leonel Edmundo Rivero
Edmundo Rivero

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- Name
- Edmundo Rivero
- Born
- 8 June 1911
- Birthplace
- Valentín Alsina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Died
- 18 January 1986
- Occupation
- Singer
- Nationality
- Argentina
- Fields
- tango
- Languages
- Spanish
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Leonel Edmundo Rivero (June 8, 1911 – January 18, 1986) was an Argentine tango singer, composer, and impresario.
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Note VALÉORINE
Edmundo Rivero (1911–1986) was an Argentine actor, composer and guitarist, among other activities. Born in Valentín Alsina, the actor died in Buenos Aires. Edmundo Rivero was a member of Academia Porteña del Lunfardo.
Genres include tango. Languages used include Spanish.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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gnd · 1372573763 · wikidata · Q1287147 · wikipedia · Edmundo Rivero
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Edmundo Rivero • Native Name — Leonel Edmundo Rivero • Alias — El Feo (The Ugly) • Born — 8 June 1911 • Birthplace — Valentín Alsina, Buenos Aires, Argentina • Died — 18 January 1986 • Genre — Tango • Occupation — Singer • Instrument — Vocals, guitar
Early days
Early days
Rivero was born in the southern Buenos Aires suburb of Valentín Alsina. Joining his father in some of his travels, he was exposed to the lifestyle and the music of the gauchos of Buenos Aires Province from his early days. His maternal great-grandfather, named Lionel, was a British immigrant, and fought against the Pampas tribes in the mid-19th century, being wounded by a spear. From him, Rivero inherited his blond hair and his first name. In his teens, Rivero's family moved to the Belgrano neighborhood, in the days where tango developed as a dancing phenomenon, but also as an ever more complex music form under the "ABC" of composers/directors Arolas, Bardi, and Cobián. At the same time, the themes of tango lyrics evolved from light-hearted ribaldry into more complex stories delving on love and manly honor. Rivero learned classic guitar and also trained as a singer; he had a deep bass-baritone voice that was one of his trademarks, together with his huge hands (due to his acromegaly) that made him the butt of many jokes.
Singing career
Singing career
• Illustration — Edmundo Rivero performing. After working as a cover singer in small venues, Rivero got his first radio appearance singing a duet with his sister Eva in Radio Cultura. He spent the early 1930s alternating radio work with dance hall gigs. After singing for bandleader José De Caro in 1935, Rivero's qualities attracted José's more famous brother Julio De Caro, who drafted Rivero into his orchestra, which incorporated non-traditional instruments and was a fixture of the Pueyrredón theatre ballroom in Flores. Rivero gained some fame, and the moniker that stayed with him forever: el feo (the ugly guy). Even though Rivero was featured in many Argentine films in the 1930s and 1940s, the early forties were a time of uncertainty for him. Even bandleaders who did hire him (such as Humberto Canaro) would not retain him for long. Later, Rivero would claim that his deep voice was a severe handicap during this time. In 1944, Rivero joined Horacio Salgán. His three-year tenure there left no recordings (with his Bartók influences, Salgán was too "far out" for the general tango audience) but earned Rivero the respect of avant-garde and jazz musicians. To make ends meet, Rivero also worked in a duo with fellow singer Carlos Bermúdez that recorded tangos in a more commercial vein for the Colombian market. In 1947, Rivero was hired by Aníbal Troilo, who was having a stellar run of recordings with new hit songs, many of them in collaboration with lyricist Homero Manzi. During his three years with Troilo, Rivero shared the limelight with Floreal Ruiz and Aldo Calderón, and recorded 22 songs, including the mega-hit Sur, where Troilo's melody frames Manzi's elegy for a young love and also for the old es. Having found fame and fortune, Rivero left Troilo in 1950 and started a solo career. For accompaniment, he would alternate between guitar quartets and a full orchestral format for the remainder of his career. The most famous musician to follow Rivero was guitarist Roberto Grela, who was also the guitarist of Troilo's quartet. Guitar-only formations were used by countryside milonga artists, early tango singers, and even Carlos Gardel in his youth, but Rivero's 1950s recordings, during a period of total dominance by big orchestras, was a bold statement, which forever cemented his identification with the silent masculinity of the countryside, as opposed to the emphasis that "urban" tango put on stories of lost love. In the sixties, Salgán and Rivero had their revenge, and recorded several tunes together. Rivero also collaborated with other artists, who noted his generosity and his devotion to music. In 1966 he appeared in the film Buenos Aires, verano 1912.
El Viejo Almacén
El Viejo Almacén
By the late 1960s, tango had become mostly "for export", since musicians and audiences were aging and making little progress from the orchestral format of the 1940s and 1950s. many tango fans rejected the music of Ástor Piazzolla and his followers, but Rivero himself admired Piazzolla, and recorded his creations on more than one occasion. Even major artists had trouble finding venues to play. Fearing for tango's viability, in 1969 Rivero opened El Viejo Almacén ("The old store"), a tango club in the San Telmo district. His hospitality was enjoyed by many visitors to Buenos Aires, who went to Rivero's club to savor the tango music and dance in its full intensity. Among the recurring visitors were Joan Manuel Serrat and Camilo José Cela. Rivero's place was a venue for tango, where musicians knew they would be respected and paid on time. Famed tango lyricist Horacio Ferrer wrote a milonga about the almacén for which Rivero later composed the music, and took to calling Rivero by his forgotten first name, Leonel, a gesture that many friends would imitate. Rivero was an icon in Japanese tango circles. He toured Japan in 1968, and got to know many Japanese musicians and dancers. Rivero composed "Arigato Japón" and "A lo Megata" (honoring Tsunayoshi "Tsunami" Megata, one of the top tango dancers of his age). Japanese tourists were a constant presence in Rivero's place. Rivero hosted a TV show in the early seventies, which featured artists from the club (such as Beba Bidart), as well as lively dialog sprinkled with lunfardo. Some of his 1960s and 1970s reunions with Troilo and Grela were televised. In 1980, Rivero took part in Osvaldo Pugliese's 75th birthday concert. In his later years, he delegated the day-to-day operation of the club to his son Edmundo ("Muni"). Rivero was hospitalized in late 1985, and died from heart failure on January 18, 1986, in Buenos Aires. In February 2011, it was reported that many artifacts germane to Rivero's legacy were stolen from a warehouse in Ramos Mejía.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1911
Edmundo Rivero born at Valentín Alsina.
1986
Edmundo Rivero died at Buenos Aires.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Valentín Alsina.
Birth place
Buenos Aires.
Death place
Selected recordings
• Sur (perhaps the most popular tango in Argentina) • El ciruja (an underworld saga sprinkled with heavy doses of lunfardo) • Amablemente (a sonnet sung as a milonga—the lyrics lead to a dramatic ending) • Pucherito de gallina • No te engañes corazón • Malón de ausencia • Yo te bendigo • Falsía • El último organito

FILETEADO PORTEÑO: Buenos Aires, Edmundo Rivero. fileteado realizado por Sergio Menasché
I´m the owner of this work

Argentine tango singer, Edmundo Rivero, performing live.
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Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1287147: Edmundo Rivero
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Edmundo Rivero”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1372573763, Edmundo Rivero y su Orquesta Típica (Musikgruppe).
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Valdes-Socin H, De Herder WW, Beckers A. The acromegalic voice of Tango: Don Edmundo Rivero. J Endocrinol Invest. 2015 Jul 11.
- 2.lavoz.com.ar.
References
Citations
References
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authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1372573763, Edmundo Rivero y su Orquesta Típica (Musikgruppe).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
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Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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