Carlos Gardel (11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was a singer, songwriter and actor, and is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of tango. He was born in Toulouse, France, although he never acknowledged his birthplace publicly, and there are still claims of his birth in Uruguay. He lived in Argentina from the age of two and acquired Argentine citizenship in 1923. He grew up in the Abasto neighborhood of Buenos Aires. He attended Pio IX Industrial high school located in the Almagro neighborhood of Buenos Aires. He died in an airplane crash at the height of his career, becoming an archetypal tragic hero mourned throughout Latin America. For many, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango style. He is commonly referred to as "Carlitos", "El Zorzal" (The Song Thrush), "The King of Tango", "El Mago" (The Magician) and "El Mudo" (The Mute).

The unerring musicality of Gardel's baritone voice and the dramatic phrasing of his lyrics made miniature masterpieces of his hundreds of three - minute tango recordings. Together with lyricist and long time collaborator Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel wrote several classic tangos, most notably: Mi Buenos Aires querido, Cuesta abajo, Amores de estudiante, Soledad, Volver, Por una cabeza and El día que me quieras.

Gardel began his singing career in bars and at private parties. He also sang with Francisco Martino and later in a trio with Martino and José Razzano. Gardel created the tango - canción in 1917 with his rendition of Pascual Contursi and Samuel Castriota's Mi Noche Triste. The recording sold 10,000 copies and was a hit throughout Latin America. Gardel went on tour through Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, and also made appearances in Paris, New York, Barcelona and Madrid. He sold 70,000 records in the first three months of a 1928 visit to Paris. As his popularity grew, he made a number of films for Paramount in France and the U.S. While sentimental films such as El día que me quieras and Cuesta abajo lack lasting dramatic value, they were outstanding showcases of his tremendous singing talents and movie star looks.

In 1915 Gardel was supposedly wounded after being shot by Che Guevara's father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, as a result of a bar room brawl in the belle epoque Palais de Glace in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires, although different versions assert that he was shot in the chest or in the leg. Yet another variation holds that it was not Che's father but rather Roberto Guevara, an upper class boy often involved in quarrels, who shot him.

Gardel died in 1935 in an airplane crash in Medellín, Colombia. Le Pera, two of their guitarists (Guillermo Desiderio Barbieri and Ángel Domingo Riverol) and several business associates and friends of the group died in the crash as well. It is believed that a third guitarist, José María Aguilar, died a few days after the crash. Others state that Aguilar lived until 1951, although he never regained full use of his hands and sight.

Millions of his fans throughout Latin America went into mourning. Hordes came to pay their respects as his body was taken from Colombia through New York City and Rio de Janeiro. Thousands rendered homage during the two days he lay in state in Montevideo, the city in which his mother lived at the time. Gardel's body was laid to rest in La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires. In the neighborhood of Abasto, Buenos Aires, Gardel's childhood home, the Carlos Gardel Museum opened in 2003.

Gardel is still revered from Tokyo to Buenos Aires. A popular saying in Latin America, which serves as a testimony to his long lived popularity, claims, "Gardel sings better every day." The fingers of his life sized tuxedo clad statue on his tomb nearly always hold a burning cigarette left by an admirer. Another commonly used phrase in Latin America, which asserts that Veinte años no es nada (Twenty years is nothing), comes from his song Volver. It is also common in Argentina, the phrase sos/soy Gardel y Le Pera (I'm/You are Gardel and Le Pera) referring to the greatness of both; used when somebody excels at something.

During 2009 - 2010 statues depicting Gardel are scheduled to be erected temporarily throughout twenty - five small villages and towns of Scotland, commemorating his tour of 1930 where the singer used funds from his well paid appearances in Glasgow and Edinburgh to subsidize small unannounced concerts in rural venues. These impromptu (and free) appearances endeared him to the working population of Scotland and his legacy of passion and art endure through regular commemorative concerts and amateur productions.

The place of Gardel's birth is a matter of considerable controversy that still provokes passionate debate in Uruguay and Argentina.

After his death, his legal representative, Armando Defino, produced a handwritten will, which he assured was written by Gardel himself, claiming he was born in Toulouse, France, to Berthe Gardès (1865 – 1943), and baptized with the name of Charles Romuald Gardes. It is not known who Gardel's father was. There is an original birth certificate of a child, Charles Romuald Gardes, born in Toulouse to Berthe Gardès on December 11, 1890. On 14 April 1937, the government of Uruguay declared Berthe Gardès to be Gardel's sole heir.

Reporters often wrote that Gardel was Uruguayan, born in Tacuarembó. In the newspaper El Telégrafo (Paysandú, Uruguay, October 25, 1933), Gardel was reported as saying, "I'm Uruguayan, born in Tacuarembó" ["soy uruguayo, nacido en Tacuarembó"]. In the June 1935 issue of Caretas magazine of Antioquia, Colombia, Gardel was reported as saying, "My heart is Argentinian, but my soul is Uruguayan, because that is where I was born" ["Mi corazón es argentino, pero mi alma es uruguaya, porque allí nací"].

Gabriel García Márquez mentions Gardel in his novel, Love in the Time of Cholera. When Florentino Ariza and doctor Juvenal Urbino meet at the former's office in the Caribbean Fluvial Company, doctor Urbino unexpectedly asks Ariza, "Do you like music?". After seriously thinking the issue, Ariza answers, "I like Gardel."

Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Ernesto Sábato, and Jimmy Buffett also mention Gardel in their works. Gardel appears as a fictionalized character in the play El día que me quieras (1979) by the Venezuelan writer José Ignacio Cabrujas.

António Lobo Antunes wrote a novel entitled The Death of Carlos Gardel in which one of the characters believes that Gardel did not die in the plane crash in 1935.
There are two films about Gardel, both in production as of March 2009: Gardel 2008 (July 2009), starring Gael García Bernal as Gardel, and Dare to Love Me (2010).

In July 2003 Warner Brothers announced that they were working on a film version of Gardel's biography, The Vision of Love (the original cast included Jessica Alba, Ricardo Chavira and Halle Berry), but production was postponed in spring 2005 until early 2006, by that time both Alba and Chavira had backed out of the film. In 2007, Lindsay Lohan and Raoul Bova were cast in the lead roles of Gardel and La Ritana. It was left unknown when production would begin up until autumn 2008, when it was officially announced that production is set to begin on the film on 18 May 2009 and it will be released in late 2010. This was again postponed and no further news is available at this time.

On March 16, 2011, the United States Postal Service issued a set of five "Latin Music Legends" stamps including one picturing Carlos Gardel. In the News Release announcing the U.S. Postage Commemorative Forever stamps, the Postal Service said "A superb and evocative singer, Carlos Gardel (1890? - 1935) was one of the most celebrated tango artists of all time. Raised in Argentina, Gardel helped popularize the tango in the United States, Europe and throughout Latin America through his performances and recordings. Known as 'the man with the tear in his voice,' he also achieved fame as one of the stars of Spanish - language cinema."