Was the reach of tango music limited to two somewhat distant, isolated countries down south, or did it also appeal to wider audiences? We do know that some tango artists managed to pull off tours through a number of Latin American countries and beyond. But much remains vague.

According to this “article”, at some point an American company acquired publishing/printing rights, for the first time ever, for a tango song. This was the vals ”Salud, dinero y amor” (Health, money and love) that was apparently very succesful in Argentina at the time, and is still loved by dancers nowadays, in three different recorded versions.

The article also mentions that this sudden success may have been caused by a New York trip of Agustin Irustá, a nowadays not-so famous singer who apparently also performed this vals there.

Lastly, tango musicians, like Francisco Canaro seemed to have been enthusiastic about this news, hoping for a breakthrough in the rest of the Western world. However, it is hard to pin down what ultimately actually did happen after the American company gained the publishing rights.