Tanda of the Week: Your Source for Argentine Tango
Welcome to Tanda of the Week – a dedicated tango blog bringing you fresh content every week for tango DJs, dancers, and lovers of Argentine tango music.
Here you can discover inspiring music, learn more about tango culture, and find tips useful even for experienced DJs.
We regularly feature tandas from the greats – Osvaldo Pugliese, Carlos Di Sarli, Aníbal Troilo, Lucio Demare, and many more – along with background stories, discographies, sources for high quality recordings, and insights into why each tanda works so well on the dance floor.
Antti Suniala
Support the blog!
Best ways to support Tanda of the Week are:
- Subscribe! Free members can enjoy 50% of all posts, while support membership (from just 5€ a month) unlocks all the tandas and exlusive posts!
- Tell your friends about the blog! I am really trying to stay away from crooked social media platforms and your help in spreading the word helps enormously!
- Join the conversation - Comment on tandas or send an email. I love reading your messages and all feedback or requests are much appreciated.
- Consider a donation to the blog - All donations will be used to improve the blog or to keep it running. There are monthly expenses and hopes to upgrade to a higher tear of service (and more features) on the blog platform.
What is a tanda?
Argentine tango is danced in milongas a "tanda" at a time with one partner.
Tandas are a set of most commonly four songs from one orchestra, following a similar style, mood and tempo through out the songs.
From the first notes of the first song, the dancers can decide if they want to dance the tanda and look for a partner.
When the DJ can play an inspiring and consistent set of four songs, the dancers can comfortably enjoy the tanda without readjusting for each song.
What is Argentine tango?
Argentine tango is a musical genre and a social dance originating from the 19th century suburbs of Buenos Aires. Argentine tango consists of the tango, vals and milonga (style of music).
The Golden Age of tango music was in 1935-1952 and the recordings from that time make the majority of music still played in milongas (tango dances) today.
Argentine tango may be instrumental or include a vocalist or a duet. Tango for dancing is most commonly played by an "orquesta típica", which includes violins, piano, double bass and bandoneóns.
