esides being a singer he is also a pediatrist and a professional journalist. We have to highlight that he is an artist that, in difficult times for tango, dared to include contemporary tangos in his repertoire: “Sueño de barrilete”, “Contame un historia”, “Mi ciudad y mi gente”, all them composed by Eladia Blázquez.

He started thanks to a talent contest: De la fábrica a la fama (From the factory to fame), organized by the textile enterprise Annan de Pergamino, which was emceed by Julio Jorge Nelson and was aired by LS6 Radio del Pueblo. He won the second prize among thousands of contestants.

At age nineteen the speaker Alfredo Tarsi recommended him to join the orchestra led by Armando Iglesias which was appearing at the tearoom La Armonía. It was an aggregation hired to replace the great orchestras on weekends.

When he was twenty-two, Alberto Tavarozzi, the composer of “Media noche”, included him in his quintet and he made his debut on LR1 Radio El Mundo under the sobriquet Juan Manuel.

But his consecration took place in 1964 when he was summoned by Héctor Varela to substitute for Rodolfo Lesica after a recommendation by Carlos Lucero “Cucusita”.

His debut with the As del Tango was in the city of Ramallo, province of Buenos Aires, under his definitive sobriquet: Claudio Bergé. By the same time he also appeared on Radio El Mundo, in the famous Glostora Tango Club when its announcers were Rafael Díaz Gallardo and Rina Morán.

By that time the speaker Carlos Parnisari, agent of his brother, the melodic singer Ricardo Rey, took him to TV Channel 9 for an audition with Santos Lipesker where Alejandro Romay —owner of the TV station— was present. After that he was immediately hired.

He appeared in the TV program Lluvia de Estrellas emceed by the speaker Pinky and the journalist Bernardo Neustadt. Thereafter in Sábados Continuados, conducted by Emilio Ariño and Antonio Carrizo, he appeared alongside Sandro y Los de Fuego, Rosamel Araya and Leonardo Favio, among other stars.

Later that same channel would hire him exclusively to appear in different shows: El Tropicana Club, Sábados de la bondad and Grandes Valores del Tango. He was also starred as actor and singer in Cinco pisos en las nubes along with Gogo Andreu, Dorys del Valle, Claudia, Alberto Marcó and Ricardo Rey. Furthermore he was in the cast of the sainete El conventillo de la paloma along with Hugo Del Carril, Diana Maggi, Inés Moreno, Tincho Zabala and Tito Lusiardo, among others. They were directed by René Mujica and Martha Reguera.

He was one of the singers included in the mythical LP Los 14 con el tango (1966) produced by Ben Molar. He appeared at the Festival Internacional Parque del Plata, in Uruguay, and won the second prize for his rendition of the tango “Frente al estaño”.

In 1969 he was consecrated as revelation at the Fiesta Nacional del Tango in La Falda (Córdoba) and was awarded the «Gardel de Oro». The following year he was part of the well-remembered Embajada Argentina en España along with Edmundo Rivero, Alberto Castillo, Virginia Luque, Néstor Fabián, Jorge Cafrune, Cacho Tirao, Chico Novarro, Hugo Díaz, Los Chalchaleros, Los Hermanos Ábalos, Violeta Rivas, María Concepción César and the great Aníbal Troilo.

In 1971 he was consecrated as best tango interpreter at the Festival Odol de la Canción on TV Channel 13 which was emceed by Blackie. On that occasion he premiered the tango “El último round”.

In 1972 he was summoned by Mariano Mores and then he recorded “Sabor de adiós” accompanied by Mores’s orchestra; he appeared alongside Roberto Rufino, Nito Mores, Roberto Goyeneche at the TV show ¿Te acordás Mariano? emceed by Silvio Soldán and Julián Centeya. The latter always praised him by saying that he had «a way of singing that belonged to a studious, personal artist who possessed a great character».

In the early eighties at the Teatro Estrellas he headed with Beba Bidart the musical Buenos Aires Todo Tango that included Jorge Falcón, the Sexteto Mayor, Horacio Salgán, Ubaldo De Lío, among others. Furthermore he appeared at the Caño 14, Michelangelo, El Viejo Almacén and La Casa de Carlos Gardel.

The Warner Brothers selected him as main figure to impersonate Carlos Gardel in the movie El día que me quieras by the Venezolan José Luis Cabrujas to be starred along with Graciela Dufau, Juan Leyrado and Ulises Dumont. In 1986 he again played the role of El Zorzal in a film by Hugo Potenza: Tango libre encuentro in which Néstor Marconi appears among others.

On December 11, 2005 he appeared in Madrid at the show De Gardel a Bergé, 115 años de tango, produced by Carlos del Mar and Rodolfo Ghezzi. The latter ones awarded him: La Orden al Mérito Gardeliano.

In his long career he made around 400 recordings for the labels EMI-Odeon, Fermata, Erato, Almalí, Microfón, M y M and Euro Records, accompanied by the greatest tango masters.

Claudio Bergé’s sponsoring patrons were Oscar Alonso and Mariano Mores and, also, Eladia Blázquez because of his recording “Mi ciudad y mi gente”.

This great singer has toured the American continent and Europe and, also has carried out an important contribution as journalist because for 19 years he has been conducting his own radio and television program: El porqué de mi vida for which he got numerous recognitions.

As from 2010 he is in the cast of the program Aguante Tango on cable TV Channel 26, emceed by Silvio Soldán.

Besides the admiration we have for him, Claudio is a great friend and frequent visitor of the Todo Tango portal and, especially, a qualified visitor in its forum La Mesa del Café.