LLOYD WEBBER – Song ‘Don’t Cry for me Argentina’ (from the album ‘Evita’) – TRIO VIOLIN, VIOLA AND CELLO

Other Identification:
“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” is a song recorded by Julie Covington for the 1976 concept album, Evita, and was later included in the 1978 musical of the same name. The song was written and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Ricewhile they were researching the life of Argentinian leader Eva Perón. It appeared at the opening and near the end of the show, initially as the spirit of the dead Eva exhorting the people of Argentina not to mourn her, and finally during Eva’s speech from the balcony of Casa Rosada. Covington was signed by the songwriters for the track, based on her previous work in musicals.

The Evita album had taken 3–4 months to record, since Rice was not satisfied with the intensity of the initial recordings. It had a number of different titles before “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was decided as the final one. The song reached number-one on the UK Singles Chart and earned a gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry(BPI), with over a million copies sold. It also reached the top of the charts in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand and the Netherlands. “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was critically appreciated, with Rice and Lloyd Webber winning the 1977 Ivor Novello award in the category of Best Song musically and lyrically

No official video was shot for the song. Instead, the scene from the movie, where Eva performs the song at the balcony of the Casa Rosada, was used. In 1993, 2 years before being cast in Evita, Madonna performed an impromptu version of the song during her first visit to Argentina, as part of her Girlie Show World Tour. Eight years later, on her 2001 Drowned World Tour, an instrumental version of the song was used as an interlude, featuring several dancers doing a Tango number.