t age 43, on December 30, 2002, the tango singer Gustavo Nocetti died in a traffic accident.

His career began when he was 15 years old by winning a contest whose award was appearing at Café Concert, a TV program of Channel 5 SODRE of Montevideo, the official television channel.

When he was 19, enthusiastically, he crossed the River Plate and arrived in Buenos Aires. The mythical Caño 14 was the first venue where he sang, invited by Atilio Stampone. There he shared the spotlight with interpreters that strongly influenced him: Roberto Goyeneche, Edmundo Rivero and Rubén Juárez, among others. He as well appeared at the TV program Grandes valores del tango.

He had a wonderful voice that was growing, that he was polishing by means of his mere effort, enthusiasm and feeling. «I never studied singing for fear of singing instructors. I’ve seen singers that promised very much, then switch to bel canto, and well, I don’t know if there are no teachers for popular singing... I think there have to be because bel canto is not the same thing as popular song. Popular singing, as a matter of fact, in certain aspects requires less of the vocal machinery but demands more in other aspects...»

In 1983, as staff singer he joined the Orquesta del Tango de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires that Raúl Garello and Carlos García led.

The journalist Ruben Borrazás wrote: «During the ten years he was based in Buenos Aires he forged his personality and appeared as a promise for the city song because of his strong, clear and beautiful voice color that knew how to fit all the lyrics he approached. He handled his highs and lows with brilliance and apparently, with no effort, making credible everything he sang. Possessing an excellent baritone pitch, his interpretations were precisely accurate, with a interpretative richness and a net tango character».

Nocetti clearly knew who were the singers that influenced him: basically Carlos Gardel, Roberto Goyeneche and Rubén Juárez.

He defined the Morocho del Abasto as the inventor. «Before Gardel there was neither anybody that sang tango nor any one knew how tango was going to be sung. Tango with lyrics was born and Gardel appears, that is to say, many things together... isn’t it? Gardel used to sing another kind of songs before the tango with lyrics developed. And he encountered a tango with lyrics and had to shape it, and he did it. He shaped it with so much quality, with so much talent that up to now that way of singing is kept.

And I think that later Goyeneche was the only singer that made a further contribution to Gardel’s way of singing, the interpretation... We have to take into account that when Gardel was singing, except Alfredo Le Pera that wrote very good lyrics for him, the poets that later Goyeneche was able to enjoy in the 40s, 50s and 60s were not there; Enrique Santos Discépolo was only just appearing and he recorded his “Yira yira”.

But Homero Manzi, Cátulo Castillo, Expósito, that people were not there, of course Ferrer or Eladia Blázquez were not either. He caught all the period of the poets, and what he did was to emphasize the poetry within the tango pieces. Naturally, in a way perfectly in tune, with a total respect for melodic line. He was a guy, let’s say, with nearly perfect pitch, and even though he was declining in his later times, I can assure you that although you thoroughly look for a note out of tune in the Polaco’s discography you won’t find it. What you can find is his minor alterations in the melody to go on in tune. That was a little trick the Polaco used».

His first record was Naranjo en flor, (Orfeo label), later Somos ilusos (La Batuta label, with arrangements by Fernando Cabrera). In 1982 he appeared in the Osvaldo Pugliese’s LP Futuro, alongside the most outstanding vocalists of the latter tango generation.

With the ensemble led by Raúl Garello he recorded previously unreleased pieces written by Horacio Ferrer and Raúl Garello (CDs Viva el tango, 1988 and Tangos en homenaje a Woody Allen, 1992).

When he settled back in Montevideo he recorded Excesos (Sondor, 1996) and appeared as soloist in the three CD's that the Orquesta Filarmónica de Montevideo recorded.

In 1999, he recorded a new CD for the Sondor label: Gustavo Nocetti Interpreta a Ferrer with Horacio Ferrer himself and the pianist Alberto Magnone. As well with them he appeared at the show Por Existir (Tango y poesía).

«Tango is poetry; and good poetry», Nocetti explained once. «I think that in tango there are many authors and very few poets, but those few had a very good output. We may find six or seven real poets, no more. Well, to assign a place for poetry at this time of the world, I think it's an act... yes, I think it's an act of courage too. It's to defend a human value. It's to defend the language of emotions, that one that is not ruled by reason. No cybernetic advance shall be able to explain the essence of the human being: The old forgotten language of emotions! Then see this, tango encompasses many, many moods of the human being. Not only that one, as some people think: when his girl left him and the poor guy stays lonely and weeping. No, tango contains a lot of moods more and with much more details».

The presence of Nocetti was a keystone for tango in Uruguay. His voice and his personality are part of a new history of tango in the River Plate area. He was a major figure of the Viva el Tango festivals that have been taking place in Montevideo for fifteen years. He was an outstanding ambassador of our city music to several capitals of the world.

Maybe he did not reach the popularity that Julio Sosa had achieved despite many chronicles after his death stubbornly tried to compare them, not only due to their artistic qualities but also because of the tragic death of both them. One thing had nothing to do with the other. Nocetti had a personality of his own and an authentic way of singing and approaching tango. His repertoire was always composed of classic pieces and vanguard songs.

Gustavo Nocetti died very young. He still had much to offer. But because of what he did he will be remembered as a voice that went beyond the boundaries of the capital of Uruguay.