HISTORY: The dance in Paris

In the first decade of the twentieth century tango music began to arrive in Paris. Tango was born around 1880, developed in the cities of Argentina, and soon thereafter spread internationally, most notably to France. French dancers enjoyed dancing to tangos and so they asked for them at dancehalls. In response to this, Argentine musicians and dancers traveled to France, tango orchestras and groups were put together, and dancing academies were established all over Paris. Until this time tango had been regarded in Buenos Aires as a low-class dance but reports of the enthusiasm for tango expressed by French dancers quickly reached Argentina. Argentine society, which had previously looked down on tango as vulgar, began to accept and enjoy this dance from working class neighborhoods that had come back home with the imprimatur of French dancers.

The success of tango in France generated a huge linguistic traffic in words, expressions and cultural references of all kinds. Carried by tango lyrics, they spread through the Spanish language spoken in Buenos Aires. The infatuation was reciprocal; as France had fallen for tango, tango was also in love with France. Tango lyrics were flooded with French identity signs and were making references to places in Paris, to the French language and to French culture.

Tango lyricists, when speaking about women, not only referred to La morocha, Estercita, Lucía or Rita but also began to mention French girls: Ivonne, Margot, Museta, Mimi, Manon, Ivette, Renée, Ninon, etc. Many Argentine tangos make reference to places in Paris: "Palais de Glace”, “Place Pigalle",  "Montmartre" and "Montparnasse". Argentines dance and sing, naturally, to tangos that are named “Chiqué”, “Comme il faut” and  “El Marne”. There is no equivalent case in any other popular music of this time, in any place in the world, in which popular songs of one country bear titles in the language of a different nationality.

Ref: www.todotango.com/english/history/chronicle/469/French-in-tango