vocalist of the generation of the forties who possesses all the features of the typical orchestra singer, and who was a member of an orchestra as if he were an instrument more. His romantic style, his sweet voice and his perfect intonation made possible his success when he was very young. Furthermore he was a studious person that never gave up the attention towards his voice and that was also musically trained, so such an extent that he founded his own conservatory, where important figures of our national song studied.

He was born in the city of Buenos Aires. His mother was from Tucumán and her name was Rosa and his father Manuel, a Spanish railway worker, who, because of his job, was transferred to Tucumán where he met the one that would be his wife.

Many years after, already retired, worked as housekeeper at the Pedro de Mendoza school/museum, which was the home of the painter Quinquela Martín, facing the Riachuelo, at the neighborhood of La Boca.

Under the suggestion of the Santiago del Estero female singer Martha de los Ríos, he studied singing with the teacher Ricardo Domínguez, since he was ten until he was twenty-three.

He was fifteen years old when he filled the application for a contest with twelve thousand contestants, held on Radio Belgrano and under the auspices of the Radiolandia magazine. He won in the «male singers» category. He award meant a six-month stint on that radio station.

Alberto Cosentino and Oscar Rubens introduced him to the pianist and leader Osmar Maderna, with whom he recorded the waltz “Pequeña” on July 21, 1949. The recording was a hit, so such an extent that during the first months a hundred and twenty renditions of that number were made by different artists.

Then at that time Héctor changed his real name for his present artistic name. On that respect there is a story: the singer and his family lived in a tenement house in a room facing the street. An Italian neighbor, that sold fish in the streets for a living, used to hear him singing. One day he commented to his wife: «How nice Rosa's son sings!» When the singer knew this, he suggested Maderna bearing the pseudonym Héctor de la Rosa, but the leader thought it was pompous so he changed it into the definitive one, Héctor De Rosas.

On December 14, 1949 he recorded “Divina” and then he began to get a lot of money which allowed him to buy a house for his parents.

He split with this orchestra tempted by the leader Pedro Laurenz, who offered him twice what he earned until then. This association was short and in the early 1951 he joined the Florindo Sassone Orchestra. He stayed for some months in it to later switch to the orchestra led by Eduardo Del Piano. With the latter he recorded ten sessions, on the first, the tango “No me pregunten por qué”, September 17, 1951, and on the last, “Remembranza”, on May 26, 1955, and in three opportunities he recorded in duo with Mario Bustos.

In 1958 he joined the Osvaldo Fresedo Orchestra in which he sang at the carnival dances and at a radio program called Los Lunes de Cleveland.

The orchestra leader Roberto Caló, as if he were a soccer player, not only offered to him a better wage but also a «bonus» for the transference. So Héctor De Rosas decided to accept. With Roberto Caló he recorded nine times. Four numbers were recorded in duo with Rodolfo Galé, a native from Mendoza.

At this stage he released another lasting hit which, due to the public acceptance, he very often has to sing up his lasts days: the tango “Rosa de fuego”. What is funny is that the piece was suggested by Caló but the singer didn't like it at all because it did not match the romantic trend he was used to.

He recorded this tango piece three times: on June 19, 1957, with Caló; he recorded it again in 1964 with José Basso, and as a soloist in 1978, accompanied by guitars and bandoneon.

Later he recorded with José Basso (1964, 11 recordings), with the Orquesta Símbolo Osmar Maderna, led by Aquiles Roggero (1968, 2 recordings), and, as soloist, with the guitars played by Carlos Peralta, Juan Carlos Gorrías, Ferreyra and the bandoneonist Juan Carlos Bera (1978, 12 recordings), with Raúl Luzzi's tango orchestra (1978, 2 numbers) and, finally, with the group of the violinist Roberto Gallardo (1986, two recordings).

In 1959 he put together an orchestra of his own teaming with the bandoneonist Celso Amato. With it he appeared on Radio Splendid. Its vocalists were: Fontán Luna, Jorge Sobral, Carlos Yanel, Tito Reyes and his former fellow singer Rodolfo Galé.

We have left for the last part his association with Astor Piazzolla because of the importance it had at this stage of his career. Astor himself said that, when he put together the quintet, he looked after the best musicians, but the singer was missing. According to Astor, «De Rosas was a neat, meticulous singer. His was not a hot voice, but he never had problems with the music I wrote. He was above Lavié and Trelles, because De Rosas was another thing, an instrument more, a flute, he placed his voice at the exact place where it ought to be.»

Julio Nudler, a careful researcher of Piazzolla's work, said: «In avant-garde tango, the summit has been the Piazzolla-De Rosas teamwork.»

In 1960 he recorded for the Telefunken label, with Astor's Quintet: “Nostalgias” and “Por la vuelta”, and later, up to 1963, nine more numbers. As well he performed at the little opera “María de Buenos Aires”, which was staged at the now disappeared Planeta Theater. But in Buenos Aires it did not have the repercussion it had in other countries.

Héctor De Rosas,during all his lifetime, understood that a voice has to be trained and polished permanently. He studied guitar and music. He was singing instructor, one of his early students became his wife and mother of his daughters. He was teacher of Marty Cosens, Rubén Juárez and María Garay, among others.

He composed the Peruvian waltz “Un amor que no siento”, the waltz “Iremos al lago” and the tango “Salgo a buscar la calle”.