Débora Simcovich
COMPOSER AND LYRICIST
Member of:
Grammy
Latin Grammy
SADAIC (Argentine Society of Lyricists and Composers)
"As a child growing up in a Jewish neighborhood
in Buenos Aires, Débora Simcovich heard tango everywhere. At weddings and bar mitzvahs the klezmer bands played tango. From nightclubs windows, street party bandstands, and the radio, especially as the June anniversary of tango legend Carlos Gardel’s death in a 1935 plane crash approached, the quintessential sound of Argentina was omnipresent"
The Mercury News
"My tangos are never about tango's fossilized
topics. I talk about what is like to be a working woman, issues of existential freedom for all, the history of my old neighborhood. When the topic is love, it is from a perspective of freedom to make choices, even when facing undesired outcomes. They don't talk about me, but rather I do the talking."
D.S.
Débora Simcovich and Orquesta Victoria
Débora and Aurora Simcovich
"Débora Simcovich is one of the
few female composers working in the male-dominated musical genre of tango. The San Francisco-based, Argentinian composer sees tango as a way to create a cultural bridge between her adopted home here in the United States and her roots in Buenos Aires’ Villa Crespo neighborhood"
KQED
About Women and Tango
In tango lyrics (there is a voluminous body, in the thousands), there is an ongoing theme of the working-class male's lament, in first person, over the betrayal of a woman they loved, who abandoned them, because she was insincere, a fake, a social climber, just out there to squeeze men dry.
Women are archetypes: the seductress unworthy of trust, the suffering mother, the least demeaning being the naive girl from the slums that tries her luck in the big city and winds up falling prey to unethical men that exploit her and abandon her.
In all of these lyrics, in contrast to these bad women, men are honest, hardworking, always victims of women. All their mistakes are forgiven because they are men and can't help themselves, their drinking, their gambling, their inability to commit, are described as minor and inevitable faults. Lyrics mostly refer to everyday life hardships, where women appear to enjoy all the advantages while men suffer.
My tangos, I, of course, are never about those dated archetypes or fossilized topics. Themes range broadly, for example: I talk about my sister, my female friends, what is like to be a working woman, issues of existential freedom for all, the history of my old neighborhood, there is no stereotypical formula, when the topic is love, it is from a perspective of freedom to make choices, even when facing undesired outcomes, or I may just talk to a man directly, what I think of him and feel in a relationship. As a woman, I have a voice. They don't talk about me, as in traditional tangos, but rather I do the talking.
En el voluminoso compendio de letras de tango hay una temática que reaparece: el lamento del hombre, generalmente de clase trabajadora, que en primera persona habla de la traición que sufrió por parte de la mujer amada, la que lo abandonó porque era mentirosa, realmente una arribista social dedicada a utilizar a los hombres para su propio beneficio económico.
Las mujeres se retratan en arquetipos: la seductora indigna de confianza, la madre eternamente sufriente, entre otros, siendo quizás el más inocuo el de la ingenua de los arrabales que prueba fortuna en la gran ciudad y termina cayendo víctima de hombres insensibles que la explotan y luego abandonan.
En ese compendio literario de letras, los hombres, en contraste, son honestos, trabajan duramente, y resultan siempre víctimas de las mujeres. Si los hombres cometen errores, éstos son perdonables porque, siendo hombres no pueden evitarlos. El ser alcohólico, adicto al juego o incapaz de comprometerse afectivamente, es visto como algo menor, una falta inevitable. La mayoría de las letras hablan de la lucha por la vida, en la que la mujer parece llevar siempre las de ganar, al aprovecharse de los pobres hombres trabajadores, mientras los que sufren son los hombres.
Como nunca fui personalmente parte ni de esos arquetipos femeninos ni de ese "pintoresquismo" tanguero, mis tangos no tratan esa temática de antaño. Abarcan la amplitud de mi existencia y la de los que me rodean. Hablo de mi hermana, mis amigas, la vida de la mujer que se gana el sustento, cuestiones de libertad existencial, mi historia en el entorno del barrio de mi niñez, hablo sin ninguna fórmula estereotipada. Cuando la temática es el amor, la trato desde la perspectiva de la libertad de elección, aun enfrentando resultados no deseados. o quizás le hable al hombre que amo en forma directa, diciéndole lo que pienso de él y lo que siento dentro de la relación. Como mujer, en mis tangos tengo voz. No se habla sobre mí, como en los tangos de antes. Soy yo la que habla, y lo hago con mi propia voz.