shall try to summarize the artistic career of this Argentine female singer, hardly known in our milieu but who was an outstanding figure on the principal stages of the world.

She was born in Lomas de Zamora, province of Buenos Aires, but soon her family moved to Ciudadela, precisely the neighborhood of Villa Reconquista.

She studied singing with the teachers Salvador D'Bricco and Mobilia who trained her mezzosoprano register. Influenced by her Italian parents she used to sing the popular music of the peninsula, especially canzonettas.

In 1960, she was awarded the first prize at the San Remo Festival of song, in Italy, for her rendition of the bolero “La hiedra”, written by D'Acquisto and Seracini. She also won the first prize at the festival of Pussileppo, Naples.

In the sixties she was hired by several radio stations: Radio Belgrano, Splendid and El Mundo. Furthermore, she gave recitals at the theaters Odeón and Ópera.

In spite of her relative success in the field of international music, her love for tango was stronger and she devoted all her passion in it. We can highlight her recitals at the theaters of the Bauen Hotel of Buenos Aires, at Castello Vecchio in La Boca, and at the Hotel Hermitage of Mar del Plata. Gradually she was losing her characteristic Italian accent. In 1978, she was summoned to cut records for the World Soccer Championship.

She experienced the most difficult period of tango and to keep up with her vocation she went abroad on a tour of America and Europe. She visited 27 countries and in Puerto Rico she presented a 3-hour show singing 48 songs, what represents an unprecedented deed, as the papers of that country said. She was labeled as «the unforgettable voice».

In 1980, back in Argentina, she appeared on ATC (Argentina Televisora Color) at the program Show fantástico, she also was on Channel 11, at the cycle Tango y goles and on Channel 9 in Grandes valores de hoy y de siempre. She was included on a disc released by ATC which was published in several countries of Latin America.

In the eighties she appeared at important venues of the Buenos Aires night: Elevage Hotel, Michelangelo, Salón Libertador of the Sheraton Hotel (a month after Frank Sinatra’s performance). As well she appeared at the Teatro La Cova, in the city of San Isidro, province of Buenos Aires, presenting her recital Elvira De Grey’s por los caminos del mundo, where she sang her old international songbook and closed with two Argentine numbers: “Los ejes de mi carreta”, by Atahualpa Yupanqui, and “Alfonsina y el mar”, by Ariel Ramírez and Félix Luna.

In 1982, she appeared during a cycle at the Teatro General San Martín alongside the Orquesta de Buenos Aires led by Raúl Garello and Carlos García. Later she started a new tour of America, Europe and the Orient.

She died at the peak of her success when she was beginning to be recognized in her country as she was abroad.

She left behind the memory of her noteworthy recordings, among them I highlight the number that Cátulo Castillo wrote in collaboration with Héctor Stamponi, the tango-canzonetta “L'Isolabella”, especially composed for her. Also are very interesting: “Por la vuelta”, “Milonguita (Esthercita)”, “Rosa de tango” and “Cuando el amor muere”. She was accompanied by Horacio Malvicino, Víctor Buchino, Martín Darré and the guitarist Tito Francia.

She was an ambassador of Argentine tango to the world, with a solid voice that cast a spell on foreign audiences. Abroad she was really recognized, paradoxically, more than in her own country. Today, Todo Tango wants to rescue her beauty, her personality and her good intonation in singing, to take her out of this unfair oblivion.