Roberto Goyeneche

Argentine singer Roberto Goyeneche, widely known by the name El Polaco, embodied the bohemian ethos of 1950s Buenos Aires and attained mythic status in the local music world. Victory in a neighborhood contest secured his place in Raúl Kaplún's orchestra in 1944 when he was eighteen; soon afterward he made his first broadcast appearance on Radio Belgrano. Partnerships followed with Horacio Salgán in 1952 and Horacio Troilo in 1956, before he began a solo career in 1963, after which he became the first performer to record Astor Piazzolla's classic "Balada Para Un Loco." Throughout the 1980s he appeared as a special guest in the films El Exilio de Gardel and Sur.