Celebrating Gustavo Cerati: A Massive Musical Tribute in Vicente López on His Birthday

“Once, my birthday” sang Gustavo Cerati in the final track of his magnificent and last album Fuerza Natural, referring to the day he was born: August 11, 1959.

Thus began the call from Vorterix and the Municipality of Vicente López dubbed Once, your birthday: a tribute to Gustavo Cerati.

Based on the 2015 event, where 1000 musicians gathered in the Italian city of Cesena to perform a version of Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters, Mario Pergolini summoned musicians from his platform to bring an instrument and an FM radio to the coast of the Buenos Aires region (Alfonsin and Laprida), to do together “one that we all know”: De música ligera.

How it all went

The event was hosted by Pergolini himself, who had a long professional and personal relationship with Soda Stereo as well as with Gustavo. Just past 4 PM, he took to the stage and asked the crowd to get ready for a first run of the song and to test that everything was working. Not before singing Happy Birthday.

Celebrating Gustavo Cerati: A Massive Musical Tribute in Vicente López on His Birthday

At 4:25 PM, after an afternoon that began at 2 PM with various DJs, the final take began. “Let’s go, eggs, this is the one that counts!” urged the host, and with the sunset in the background and an unrelenting wind, more than a thousand musicians played the Soda Stereo hit included in the album Canción Animal.

The guiding band, with Andrea Alvarez on drums, at the tribute to Gustavo Cerati on the Costa de Vicente López. Photo: Matías Baglietto

From the stage and as a musical guide was Andrea Álvarez (who recorded on the album) on drums, with vocal support from the Coro Kennedy. The final audio mix was handled by the keyboardist, producer, and historical collaborator of Gustavo, Tweety González.

The Coro Kennedy at the tribute to Gustavo Cerati on the Costa de Vicente López. Photo: Matías Baglietto

The invited musicians received, through the FM radio they brought, a metronome on the left channel and the original song on the right, which allowed the hundreds of musicians to be synchronized, resulting in a polished outcome.

The technical challenge was managed by the Vorterix team, which coordinated the entry of the hundreds of musicians who signed up to participate and ensured everything worked to achieve the desired outcome.

“It could have been a disaster,” Mario tells Clarín after the event. “But it turned out perfect! What a madness!”

Heading to the Hall of Fame

Another attendee at the tribute was Colombian Andrés Ospina, who is promoting a campaign for Soda Stereo to be included in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, the American museum dedicated to the most influential figures in rock history.

Tribute to Gustavo Cerati on the Costa de Vicente López. Photo: Matías Baglietto

The initiative started four years ago with the aim of gathering digital signatures from around the world so that the great Argentine band shares the hall alongside the Beatles, Queen, Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. They already have 37,000 signatures, and those who wish to join can do so from the page www.sodastereorockhalloficial.com.

Mission accomplished in Vicente López, a location that is anything but coincidental, as it is precisely where Gustavo lived for several years and where he had his recording studio called “Unísono” in Florida, a name that is quite allegorical for this afternoon of massive music and anything but light. A tremendous gathering, almost as big as Cerati’s legacy.

Another celebration at the Planetarium

Practically at the same time as the gathering of musicians and fans in Vicente López, other hundreds of admirers of Gustavo Cerati and Soda Stereo gathered at the Planetarium, an emblematic place in the history of the trio because their famous video for the song Zoom was filmed there.

The flyer for the call to the Planetarium, called

It was aptly named “Zoom 2024 – the 2nd Sodero Ceratian Gathering” and was announced on social media as “a picnic with a guitar jam,” where fans played the songs, exchanged records and memorabilia, and even held giveaways every hour.