The Most Famous

MUSICIANS from Argentina

This page contains a list of the greatest Argentinean Musicians. The pantheon dataset contains 3,175 Musicians, 15 of which were born in Argentina. This makes Argentina the birth place of the 25th most number of Musicians behind South Korea, and Jamaica.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Argentinean Musicians of all time. This list of famous Argentinean Musicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Argentinean Musicians.

1. Martha Argerich (b. 1941)

With an HPI of 69.57, Martha Argerich is the most famous Argentinean Musician. Her biography has been translated into 49 different languages on wikipedia.

Martha Argerich (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmaɾta aɾxeˈɾitʃ]; Eastern Catalan: [əɾʒəˈɾik]; born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of eight before receiving further piano training in Europe. At an early age, she won several competitions, including the VII International Chopin Piano Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni Competition and has since recorded numerous albums and performed with leading orchestras worldwide.

2. Chris de Burgh (b. 1948)

With an HPI of 61.27, Chris de Burgh is the 2nd most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Christopher John Davison (born 15 October 1948), known professionally as Chris de Burgh (English: d'-BER), is a British-Irish singer-songwriter and musician. He started out as an art rock performer but subsequently started writing more pop-oriented material. He has had several top 40 hit singles in the UK and two in the US, but he is more popular in other countries, particularly Norway and Brazil. His 1986 love song "The Lady in Red" reached number one in several countries. De Burgh has sold over 45 million albums worldwide.

3. Lalo Schifrin (b. 1932)

With an HPI of 60.57, Lalo Schifrin is the 3rd most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestrations. He is a five-time Grammy Award winner; he has been nominated for six Academy Awards and four Emmy Awards. Schifrin's best known compositions include the themes from Mission: Impossible and Mannix, as well as the scores to Cool Hand Luke (1967), Bullitt (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Enter the Dragon (1973), The Four Musketeers (1974), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), The Amityville Horror (1979), and the Rush Hour trilogy (1998–2007). Schifrin is also noted for his collaborations with Clint Eastwood from the late 1960s to the 1980s, particularly the Dirty Harry series of films. He composed the Paramount Pictures fanfare used from 1976 to 2004. In 2019, he received an honorary Oscar "in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity and influential contributions to the art of film scoring."

4. Gustavo Santaolalla (b. 1951)

With an HPI of 58.13, Gustavo Santaolalla is the 4th most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla (Spanish: [ɡusˈtaβo alˈfɾeðo santaoˈlaʝa]; born 19 August 1951) is an Argentine composer and musician. Known for his minimalist approach to composing, he rose to fame for creating the scores for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Babel (2006), for which he received two Academy Awards for Best Original Score in consecutive years. Santaolalla also gained recognition for his work on The Last of Us game series, composing the 2013 title and its 2020 sequel. He returned to reprise his themes and co-compose the score for the 2023 television adaptation. Santaolalla has been a collaborator with acclaimed director Alejandro González Iñárritu, composing the first four psychological drama films Iñárritu directed. His other notable work includes writing the themes for television series such as the American satirical romantic dramedy series Jane the Virgin (2014–2019), its MBC 4 Arabic adaptation, and the crime documentary series Making a Murderer (2015–2018). Santaolalla is also a member of the neotango group Bajofondo and was formerly a member of the rock group Arco Iris.

5. Gato Barbieri (1932 - 2016)

With an HPI of 55.98, Gato Barbieri is the 5th most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Leandro "Gato" Barbieri (November 28, 1932 – April 2, 2016) was an Argentine jazz tenor saxophonist who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and is known for his Latin jazz recordings of the 1970s. His nickname, Gato, is Spanish for "cat".

6. Charly García (b. 1951)

With an HPI of 52.79, Charly García is the 6th most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Carlos Alberto García Moreno (born October 23, 1951), better known by his stage name Charly García, is an Argentine singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and record producer, considered one of the most important and avant-garde figures of Argentine and Latin American music. Named "the father of rock nacional", García is widely acclaimed for his recording work, both in his multiple groups and as a soloist, and for the complexity of his music compositions, covering genres like folk rock, progressive rock, symphonic rock, jazz, new wave, pop rock, funk rock, and synth-pop. His lyrics are known for being transgressive and critical towards modern Argentine society, especially during the era of the military dictatorship, and for his rebellious and extravagant personality, which has drawn significant media attention over the years. In his teenage years, García founded the folk-rock band Sui Generis with his classmate Nito Mestre in the early 70s. Together, they released three successful studio albums, which were very known around the country. The band separated in 1975 with a concert at the Luna Park. García then became part of the supergroup PorSuiGieco and founded another supergroup, La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, with whom he released key albums to establish progressive rock in the Latin American music scene. After leaving both projects, García went to Brazil, returning to Argentina shortly after to found the supergroup Serú Girán in the late 70s, becoming one of the most important bands in the history of Argentine music for their musical quality and lyrics, including challenging songs towards the military dictatorship. The group dissolved in 1982 after releasing four studio albums and a final concert at the Obras Sanitarias stadium. Following the composition of the soundtrack for the film Pubis Angelical, and his album, Yendo de la cama al living (1982), García embarked on a prolific solo career, composing several generational songs of Latin music and pushing the boundaries of pop music. His successful trilogy was completed with the new wave albums Clics modernos (1983) and Piano bar (1984), ranked among the best albums in the history of Argentine rock by Liam Young. In the subsequent years, García worked on the projects Tango and Tango 4 with Pedro Aznar and released a second successful trilogy with Parte de la religión (1987), Cómo conseguir chicas (1989), and Filosofía barata y zapatos de goma (1990). Simultaneously, he began to be involved in various media scandals due to his exorbitant and extravagant behavior, and he suffered his first health accident due to increasing drug addiction during the 90s. By the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, García entered his controversial and chaotic Say no More era, in which critics and sales poorly received his albums, but his concerts were a success. After the release of Rock and Roll YO (2003), he took a long hiatus, with sporadic appearances for rehabilitation from his addiction issues. He returned to the public scene with his latest live album El concierto subacuático (2010) and released the albums Kill Gil (2010) and Random (2017). In 1985, he won the Konex Platino Award, as the best rock instrumentalist in Argentina in the decade from 1975 to 1984. In 2009, he received the Grammy Award for Musical Excellence. He won the Gardel de Oro Award three times (2002, 2003, and 2018). In 2010, he was declared an Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires by the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires, and in 2013, he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of General San Martín.

7. Osvaldo Pugliese (1905 - 1995)

With an HPI of 52.47, Osvaldo Pugliese is the 7th most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Osvaldo Pedro Pugliese (Buenos Aires, December 2, 1905 – July 25, 1995, Buenos Aires) was an Argentine tango musician. He developed dramatic arrangements that retained strong elements of the walking beat of salon tango but also heralded the development of concert-style tango music. Some of his music, mostly since the 1950s, is used for theatrical dance performances. In Buenos Aires, Pugliese is often played later in the evening when the dancers want to dance more slowly, impressionistically and intimately.

8. Aníbal Troilo (1914 - 1975)

With an HPI of 52.11, Aníbal Troilo is the 8th most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Aníbal Carmelo Troilo (11 July 1914 – 18 May 1975), also known as Pichuco, was an Argentine tango musician. Troilo was a bandoneon player, composer, arranger, and bandleader in Argentina. His orquesta típica was among the most popular with social dancers during the golden age of tango (1940–1955), but he changed to a concert sound by the late 1950s. Troilo's orchestra is best known for its instrumentals, though he also recorded with many well-known vocalists such as Roberto Goyeneche, Edmundo Rivero and Francisco Fiorentino. His rhythmic instrumentals and the recordings he made with vocalist Francisco Fiorentino from 1941 to 1943, known as milongas, were some of the favourites in tango salons. The renowned bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla played in and arranged for Troilo's orquesta típica during the period of 1939–1944.

9. Gustavo Cerati (1959 - 2014)

With an HPI of 51.78, Gustavo Cerati is the 9th most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Gustavo Adrián Cerati (11 August 1959 – 4 September 2014) was an Argentine musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, who gained international recognition for being the leader, vocalist, composer, and guitarist of the rock band Soda Stereo. He is widely considered by critics, specialized press, and musicians as one of the most important and influential artists of Latin rock. Billboard magazine ranked Cerati as the 33rd best rock singer of all time. Influenced by The Beatles and The Police, Cerati joined various groups during his adolescence, and in 1982 he founded the Latin rock band Soda Stereo. Leader and main composer of the group, from Signos (1986) his way of making songs began to mature, and his consolidation reached it at the beginning of the 90s with Canción Animal (1990), in which he returned to the roots of Argentine rock from the 70's. Parallel to his career with the group, in 1992 he published the album Colores Santos as a duet with Daniel Melero, considered one of the first in South America to include electronic music, and the following year he would publish his first as a soloist, Amor Amarillo. His taste for electronic music led him to incorporate it into his latest works with Soda Stereo. After the separation of the band, he released Bocanada (1999) and Siempre es hoy (2002), where he showed his interest in the genre more than he freely manifested in his alternate projects Plan V and Ocio. He returned to the rock style with his fourth album, Ahí vamos (2006), which received acclaim from the public and critics, and which contains some of his greatest solo hits, such as "Crimen" and "Adiós". In 2007, he reunited with Soda Stereo after ten years apart on a tour that brought together more than a million viewers. In 2010, he was left in a coma after suffering a stroke, after finishing a concert in which he promoted his latest album, Fuerza Natural (2009). Four years later, on 4 September 2014, Cerati died of cardiac arrest in Buenos Aires aged 55. Cerati was a prolific session player, he was a guest guitarist on songs by Caifanes, Babasónicos and Los Brujos, and he collaborated on songs with Charly García, Andrés Calamaro, Fito Páez, Shakira, Andy Summers, Roger Waters and Mercedes Sosa, among others. Throughout his solo career, he has sold more than 10 million records and won numerous awards, including the Latin Grammy, MTV, Konex, and Gardel. In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked Cerati in seventh place among the 100 best Argentine rock guitarists.

10. Juan d'Arienzo (1900 - 1976)

With an HPI of 51.48, Juan d'Arienzo is the 10th most famous Argentinean Musician. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Juan d'Arienzo (December 14, 1900 – January 14, 1976) was an Argentine tango musician, also known as "El Rey del Compás" (King of the Beat). He was a violinist, band leader, and composer. He was the son of Italian immigrants and used more modern arrangements and instrumentation; his popular group produced hundreds of recordings. His first memorable performance was in 1919 at the Nacional theater during the comic play by Alberto Novión, El cabaret Montmartre. He received the nickname Rey del Compás (King of the Beat), from Príncipe Cubano, at the Florida cabaret when he was replacing Osvaldo Fresedo. He said: "Mine was always a tough orchestra, with a very swinging, much nervous, vibrant beat. And it was that way because tango, for me, has three things: beat, impact and nuances. An orchestra ought to have, above all, life. That is why mine lasted more than fifty years. And when the Prince gave me that title, I thought that it was OK, that he was right." His music is played often at milongas in Buenos Aires. His recordings were accompanied by singers: Alberto Echagüe, Armando Laborde, Héctor Maure, Jorge Valdez, Alberto Reynal, Antonio Prieto, Carlos Casares, Carlos Dante, Enrique Carbel, Francisco Fiorentino, Horacio Palma, Héctor Millán, Mario Bustos, Juan Carlos Lamas, Libertad Lamarque, Mercedes Serrano, Raquel Notar, Osvaldo Ramos, Roberto Lemos and Walter Cabral. He recorded more than 1000 tangos, milongas and fast valses, wrote lyrics for 3 tangos, composed 46 tangos. He is interred in the La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

People

Pantheon has 16 people classified as Argentinean musicians born between 1900 and 1981. Of these 16, 10 (62.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Argentinean musicians include Martha Argerich, Chris de Burgh, and Lalo Schifrin. The most famous deceased Argentinean musicians include Gato Barbieri, Osvaldo Pugliese, and Aníbal Troilo. As of April 2024, 1 new Argentinean musicians have been added to Pantheon including Sol Gabetta.