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about
Daniel Melingo, who was born in 1957 in Buenos Aires, grew up the Balvanera and Parque Patricios neighbourhoods. He started learning music at the Carlos López Buchardo national music academy as a child, studying classical guitar and clarinet. He then continued his studies at the Manuel de Falla municipal academy and at Argentina’s Catholic University as part of the Musicology, Ethnomusicology and Composition department.
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In late 1983, he set up the popular rock band Los Twist, with Pipo Cipolatti.
In 1984, Charly García invited him to take part in the presentation of Yendo de la cama al living and he then joined his group.
In 1986, he left for Spain, where he worked with the band Los toreros muertos, then set up another band, Lions in Love.
In 1995, he brought out his first solo album, H2O, which was dominated by reggae and funk, and inspired by the comic book El Eternauta by ‘Cachorro’ López.
He moved back to Buenos Aires and in 1997, Melingo turned to the tango when he presented a TV programme Mala Yunta for the cable channel Sólo Tango, on which he played host to rock musicians who performed tangos.
He continued his career by dedicating himself entirely to tango from then on, and set texts by Enrique Cadícamo, Celedonio Flores, Dante A. Linyera, Julián Centella, Carlos de la Púa, and Luis Alposta (his co-writer since 1998) to music, as well as his own poems. He gave various concerts both in Argentina and abroad. He produced records full of suburban poetry. With his characters at the fringes of legality and his tales of alcohol, prostitutes, drugs, fights and love affairs, ‘Melingo’s world’ provided a road into tango for future generations.
In 2004, the Argentinian guitarist Eduardo Makaroff (Gotan Project) invited him to join the Mañana label, which he had just founded and this paved Melingo’s way to a successful European career.
In 2015, he won the Konex – Diploma al Mérito prize as one of the decade’s 5 best singers in Argentina.
In late 1979, he left for Brazil, where he launched his professional career when he played for a while with the ensemble led by Milton Nascimento, a key figure in the history of Brazilian music.
On returning to Buenos Aires, he joined the legendary group Los Abuelos de la Nada, in which he played the saxophone, the clarinet and the guitar, alongside musicians such as Miguel Abuelo.