Juan Marcelo has died, and the news was confirmed by the Asociación Argentina de Actores y Actrices, which said goodbye to the singer and composer whose work crossed from popular music into television. For those who knew him as part of Juan y Juan, the loss closes the final chapter of a career that helped define a stretch of Argentine entertainment remembered well beyond its original moment.
Juan Eduardo Carballo, his partner in life and in the duo, is among those left with the news that ended that long shared history. The statement from the association captured that bond in a few words: “Te amaré el resto de mi vida.”
Born in 1944 in San Martín, provincia de Buenos Aires, under the name Enrique Raúl de Jesús, Marcelo came to prominence with Juan y Juan at the beginning of the 1970s. Ricardo Kleinman took the duo to the studio and suggested the pairing, and the project stood out because both members sang, composed and traded vocals. Their first successes included “¿Hola, qué tal?”, followed by “Balada para un gordo” and the widely played “Bailando en una pata”, along with “Hay que alegrar el corazón”.
The duo also reached television audiences through Alta Tensión, Sótano Beat and programs by Nicolás Mancera. Their records circulated in different countries in America during the 1970s, and they appeared in the Primer Festival Latinoamericano de Nueva York, where they won recognition for “Ahora que soy libre.” Engelbert Humperdinck later recorded a version of that song, a sign of how far the material traveled.
Marcelo’s later work kept him tied to the screen through Alberto Migré. He worked on Rolando Rivas, taxista and composed “Yo te quiero, nos queremos (Vivir enamorados)” for that production. His songs also appeared in Mi hombre sin noche, Dos a quererse and Piel naranja, while in Amo y señor he composed and performed “Eso me pasa por volar” and acted as Adrián. In El infiel, he provided the voice for “Mi lib.”
What remains unresolved is the one thing the statement did not provide: the date of his death and the cause. That gap does not soften the news; it sharpens it. Marcelo leaves behind a body of work tied to years when music and television shared the same household space, and the association’s farewell makes clear that his songs have already moved from current memory into enduring one.
