Manu Chao

Manu Chao (born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao on 21 June 1961) is a French singer of Spanish descent.

He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Greek, and occasionally in other languages.

Chao began his musical career in Paris, busking and playing with groups such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos, which combined a variety of languages and musical styles.

Heavily influenced by the UK rock scene, particularly The Clash, The Jam and Dr. Feelgood, Chao and other musicians formed the Spanish/English rockabilly group Hot Pants in the mid-1980s.

The group released a demo entitled "Mala Vida" in 1984, which received plenty of local critical praise but otherwise gained them little attention.

By the time the group released their first album in 1986 the Parisian alternative music scene had taken flight, and Manu, his brother Antoine Chao, and friends such as Alain from Les Wampas formed Los Carayos to incorporate this sound with the rockabilly and punk styles of Hot Pants.

With friends and his brother Antoine Chao, he founded the band Mano Negra in 1987, achieving considerable success, particularly in Europe.

In 1987, the Chao brothers and their cousin Santiago Casariego founded the band Mano Negra.

Starting on a smaller label, the group released a reworked version of the Hot Pants single "Mala Vida" in 1988, which quickly became a hit in France.

The group soon moved to Virgin Records, and their first album Patchanka was released the following year.

Though the group never gained much fame in the English-speaking market, popularity throughout the rest of the world soon followed, reaching the Top 5 in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.

The band achieved some fame in South America with 1992's Cargo Tour, where it played a series of shows in port cities, performing from a stage built into their tour ship's hold.

Mano Negra also performed a tour through much of Colombia in a retired train, the "Ice Express".

Los Carayos remained a side project of the artists for eight years, releasing three albums in the first two years followed by a final album in 1994.

Still, rifts began to grow among band members during the port tour and the following year's train tour; many band members, including Manu's brother Antoine, had left the group by the end of 1994.

He became a solo artist after its breakup in 1995 and since then tours regularly with his live band, Radio Bemba.

Chao's mother, Felisa Ortega, is from Bilbao, Basque Country, and his father, writer and journalist Ramón Chao, is from Vilalba, Galicia.

They emigrated to Paris to avoid Francisco Franco's dictatorship—Manu's grandfather had been sentenced to death.

Shortly after Manu's birth, the Chao family moved to the outskirts of Paris, and Manu spent most of his childhood in Boulogne-Billancourt and Sèvres.

As he grew up he was surrounded by many artists and intellectuals, most of whom were acquaintances of his father.

Chao cites much of his childhood experience as inspiration for some songs.

As a child, he was a big fan of Cuban singer-pianist Bola de Nieve.

Following that year's release of their final album, Casa Babylon, Manu Chao moved the band to Madrid, but legal problems with former bandmates led Chao to disband the group in 1995.

Mano Negra's sound is mostly characterized by energetic, lively rhythms, symbolized by the title of their first album, Patchanka, derived from the word pachanga (which is a colloquial term for "party"), and a distinct informality which allows the audience to get involved and feel close to their sound.

Mixed music genres are present throughout their albums.

The songs were collectively released as Clandestino in 1998, under Manu Chao's own name.

Though not an instant success, the album gained a steady following in France with hits such as "Bongo Bong" and "Clandestino", and the album eventually earned the Best World Music Album award in 1999's Victoires de la Musique awards.

It sold in excess of 5 million copies.

Chao's second album with Radio Bemba Sound System, Próxima Estación: Esperanza, was released in 2001.

This album, named after one of the Madrid metro station stops (the title translates to Next Station: Hope), features similar sounds to Clandestino but with heavier Caribbean influences than the previous album.

This was the first international release since 2001's Próxima Estación: Esperanza.

"Rainin in Paradize" was the first single from the album, available for download on his website before the release of the album.

The album was an instant hit, leading to a successful tour that resulted in the 2002 live album Radio Bemba Sound System. Two years later, Chao returned to his French roots with the French-only album Sibérie m'était contéee, which included a large book featuring lyrics to the album and illustrations by Jacek Woźniak.

Manu Chao is friends with Gogol Bordello and that group has covered Mano Negra's song "Mala Vida" on their own and with Chao beginning in 2006.

After arriving in Madrid, Chao and other bandmates from Mano Negra formed a new group, Radio Bemba Sound System (named for the communication system used in the Sierra Maestra by the Castro-and-Guevara-led rebels in the Cuban Revolution), featuring groups from diverse backgrounds, such as Mexican Tijuana No!, Brazilian Skank, and Argentinian Todos Tus Muertos.

The goal was to replicate the sound of street music and bar scenes from a variety of cultures; to that end, Chao and the group spent several years travelling throughout South and Central America, recording new music as they went.

The resulting music differed drastically from Mano Negra; the songs were primarily sung in Spanish with far fewer French tracks and the musical style had shifted from punk and alternative styles to the street vibe Chao was aiming for.

Manu Chao's next album La Radiolina (literally "little radio" in Italian, but also "pocket radio") was released on 17 September 2007.

Concert reviews indicate that music from La Radiolina was already being performed live as early as April 2007's Coachella show.

Manu Chao said in Alt.Latino in 2011, "Mano Negra started playing in a subway in Paris before the band started to be known and selling records. We started in a subway for a living. This is what made the musicians of Mano Negra. And so the people using the subway in Paris was very eclectic. There were people from a lot of different countries, different cultures. So we have to be able to play all kinds of music to please all the people in a subway. So that was a perfect school to learn a lot of different styles of music."