Gracias totales: Soda Stereo say goodbye at River Plate

Soda Stereo had announced in May 1997 that they were ending. The trio of Gustavo Cerati, Zeta Bosio and Charly Alberti had, over fifteen years, become the first Argentine rock band to fill stadiums across Latin America, the group that carried rock en español from Mexico City to Santiago. The farewell tour, El Último Concierto, went around the continent and finished where it had to, at the River Plate stadium in Buenos Aires.

The last song was De Música Ligera, the 1990 single that had become their anthem. When it reached the final chorus Cerati let the band drop out, spoke his thanks to the people who had stayed with them, and closed with "¡Gracias... totales!", a phrase that did not exist in Spanish until he said it. The crowd, tens of thousands strong, finished the song for him.

The phrase entered the language: it is printed on murals, shouted at football grounds and used by politicians. The band reunited for one tour in 2007, Me Verás Volver, which sold more than a million tickets. Cerati suffered a stroke on stage in Caracas in 2010 and died in 2014 without regaining consciousness, which is why the recording of that night in 1997 is still where Argentina goes to hear him.