Buenos Aires Lyrics
Buenos Aires
[Eva:]What's new Buenos Aires?
I'm new, I wanna say I'm just a little stuck on you
You'll be on me too
I get out here, Buenos Aires
Stand back, you oughta know whatcha gonna get in me
Just a little touch of star quality
Fill me up with your heat, with your noise
With your dirt, overdo me
Let me dance to your beat, make it loud
Let it hurt, run it through me.
Don't hold back, you are certain to impress
Tell the driver this is where I'm staying
Hello, Buenos Aires
Get this, just look at me dressed up, somewhere to go
We'll put on a show
Take me in at your flood, give me speed
Give me lights, set me humming
Shoot me up with your blood, wine me up
With your nights, watch me coming
All I want is a whole lot of excess
Tell the singer this is where I'm playing
Stand back, Buenos Aires
Because you oughta know whatcha gonna get in me
Just a little touch of star quality
And if ever I go too far
It's because of the things you are
Beautiful town, I love you
And if I need a moment's rest
Give your lover the very best
Real eiderdown and silence.
[musical interlude]
You're a tramp, you're a treat
You will shine to the death, you are shoddy
But you're flesh, you are meat
You shall have every breath in my body
Put me down for a lifetime of success
Give me credit, I'll find ways of paying
Rio de la Plata
Florida, Corrientes, Nueve de Julio
All I want to know
Stand back, Buenos Aires
Because you oughta know whatcha gonna get in me
Just a little touch of
Just a little touch of
Just a little touch of star quality
Song Overview
Personal Review
The first time “Buenos Aires” blasted through my cheap dorm speakers I nearly spilled mate all over my notebook. Patti LuPone's grin is practically audible; she chews the lyrics like taffy and spits them back with brass-band swagger. Drums rattle, horns stab, and suddenly the city smells of diesel, tango sweat, and overripe ambition. Forty-plus years on I still can’t sit still when the samba groove kicks in—Eva Duarte may have boarded that train in 1935, but every note still arrives today, right on time.
Song Meaning and Annotations
“What’s new, Buenos Aires? I’m new—” It’s the ultimate meet-cute between a small-town girl and a sprawling metropolis. In three manic minutes Tim Rice’s lyrics sketch Eva’s game plan: soak up the city’s heat, noise, dirt, then radiate pure “star quality.” Andrew Lloyd Webber matches her swagger with a slinky bass figure, carnival whistles, and percussion borrowed from samba street bands rather than Broadway pits.
The music barrels forward in cut-time, hardly pausing for breath—mirroring Eva’s own headlong rush. Mid-song, Che crashes the party with a spoken polo-match vignette that drips with class satire. That brittle contrast—Eva’s sweaty ambition against oligarchic leisure—sets up the whole musical’s clash of optics and power.
Song Credits
- Featured: Patti LuPone (Eva), Ensemble
- Producers: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice
- Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Lyricist: Tim Rice
- Arranger/Orchestrator: David Cullen (revival editions), original charts supervised by Lloyd Webber
- Release Date: October 5, 1979
- Genre: Show Tune / Latin Rock fusion
- Instruments: Samba kit, congas, electric bass, brass section, rhythm guitars, strings, whistles
- Label: MCA Records (Original Broadway Cast)
- Mood: Feverish, cocky
- Length: 3 : 48
- Track # 4 on Evita – Original Broadway Cast Recording
- Language: English with Spanish place-names
- Poetic meter: Mixed trochaic bursts and syncopated patter
- Copyright © 1979 Really Useful Group / Tim Rice Ltd.
Songs Exploring Urban Hunger & Fame
While Eva flirts with a whole city, Anita’s “America” from West Side Story (1957) argues with it. The rhythms are cousin-fast, yet Sondheim’s lyric pits dream against disillusion, where “Buenos Aires” only flirts with cost.
Meanwhile, “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in Funny Girl (1964) sends Fanny Brice charging down New York Harbor. Both heroines hitch self-worth to civic horizons, but Eva’s samba heat swaps for Brice’s brassy swing.
In contrast, Billy Joel’s “Miami 2017” (1976) eulogizes a metropolis already lost. Where Eva pledges lifelong romance, Joel writes a breakup letter, proving every city love story has its clock.
Questions and Answers
- Was “Buenos Aires” ever released as a single?
- No. The 1979 Broadway album spun off no commercial singles, though Julie Covington’s 1976 concept version briefly charted in the UK and Madonna’s 1996 film cut got radio play.