D -- Don't Cry for Me, Argentina

Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina was a part of the album, Evita. It was sung by Julie Covington, and it was later included in Evita, the musical. Based on the life of the Argentinian leader, megalomaniac Eva Peron. She was also the wife of Juan Peron, Argentina’s President.

The song supposedly involved the spirit of the dead Eva exhorting the people of Argentina not to mourn her.

I didn’t learn until much later that the song was loosely based on an impassioned speech by Eva Peron.

Being half a globe away, India was not too hot on Argentinian affairs. Nor was I old enough to be interested.

The song was very significant to me because I used to sing the chorus, infusing into my singing my own brand of passion and what I thought was soulfulness.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know the lyrics well, and so I mis-heard the lyrics, and sang what I thought I heard.

So while Julia was singing, “All through my wild days, my mad existence, I kept my promise,” what my ears deciphered for me was, “All through my wide As, my married sisters, I kept my promise.”

It never occurred to me that I was making a mistake.




I recall telling my brother, “Why don’t these pop singers pay attention to their songs? What are wide As and what do they have to do with married sisters?”


There was no Internet then, so I had no opportunity to look up the lyrics and amend the version I was singing.


So I gave the singer the benefit of the doubt. Maybe, I told myself, it was some kind of a code. Maybe it was some uniquely Argentinian eccentricity. I told my brother about my new theory, and continued to sing my version as loudly and enthusiastically as I could.



Don’t cry for me, Argentinaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I wailed.



I have no doubt that Argentina wailed ever louder in response.