PORTLAND – Sandra Luna, a 2004 Grammy nominee in the Best Traditional World Music album category, is at the forefront of the revival of tango-canción (sung tango). She will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, at the Center for Cultural Exchange. Her repertoire features re-energized versions of tango classics, along with new tango compositions that tell the tale of contemporary life in Buenos Aires.

Tango, known to be provocative and flashy, was born in the early 1900s in the bars and brothels of Buenos Aires, where men outnumbered women by 100,000. The passion of music and dance has rarely been more indicative of a social climate than that of Argentina’s tango. In recent years, a few women have flipped the traditional gender roles of tango, putting a strong female voice at the fore of the style. “With her strong personably modern voice, she (Luna) redefines the genre and makes a marked gender shift,” wrote Jan Fairly in a recent issue of the United Kingdom’s Songlines magazine.

Show tickets: $15, $18 day of show. Call 761-0591; visit www.centerforculturalexchange.org; or to go Bull Moose music stores.