Manu Chao

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Manu Chao (born June 21, 1961 in Paris; real name Jose-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao; also occasionally credited as Oscar Tramor) is a French Latin folk singer of Spanish origin.

Early life

Chao’s mother was Basque and his father, writer and journalist Ramón Chao, Galician from Vilalba. They moved to Paris to escape Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, which lasted until the dictator’s death in 1975. Shortly after Manu’s birth, the Chao family moved to the outlying suburbs of Paris, and Manu spent most of his childhood in Boulogne-Billancourt and Sèvres. Whilst growing up he was constantly surrounded by artists and intellectuals, most of whom were his father’s acquaintances and wide multicultural diversty that influenced his personality to a large extent. He grew up with thoughts of social equality and a thirst for diversity which largely shows in the mixture of distinct exotic sound without boundaries in his music.

Career

Early years and Mano Negra

Heavily influenced by the UK punk scene, particularly Chao and other musicians formed the Spanish/English rockabilly group Hot Pants in the mid-80s. The group released a demo entitled “Mala Vida” in 1984, garnering plenty of local critical praise but otherwise gaining 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 rockbilly and punk styles of Hot Pants. Los Carayos remained a side interest of the artists for eight years, releasing three albums in the first two years followed by a final album in 1994.

In 1987, the Chao brothers and their cousin Santiago Casariego founded the band Mano Negra. Starting on a smaller label, the group released a re-worked version of the Hot Pants single “Mala Vida,” which quickly became a hit in France. The group soon moved to Virgin, and their first album Patchanka was released the following year. Though the group never gained a foothold in the Anglo market, popularity throughout the rest of the world soon followed. Gained Top #5 in Netherlands, Italy and Germany, In South America, the band achieved some fame from 1992’s “Cargo Tour,” where the band played a series of shows in port cities, performing from a stage built into their tour ship’s hold. Still, rifts began to grow among band members during that tour and the following year’s train station tour throughout South America; many band members, including Manu’s brother Antoine, had left the group by the end of 1994. 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 lively rythms which transmit a vibrant energy, symbolized by the tittle of their first album “patchanka” (which is a coloquial term for “party”), and a distinct informality which allows the audience to get involved and feel familiarly close to their sound. The mixing of music genres is present throughout their albums and could generally be summarised by categorizing them into some kind of folkloric rock punk with reggae fragances of a highly innovative nature. Their fame lies, and always will, close to “the street”, “the people”, an underground clandestinity far from reach of the mass media and mainstream tolerance.

Solo years with Radio Bemba

After arriving in Madrid, Chao and other bandmates from Mano Negra formed a new group, Radio Bemba Sound System, featuring artists from widely varying groups such as Tijuana No! (from Mexico), Skank (from Brazil), and Todos Tus Muertos (from Argentina). 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. 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.

Chao’s second album with Radio Bemba Sound System, Próxima Estación: Esperanza, was released in 2001. This album, named in the fashion of 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. 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.

Other works

Manu Chao and Tonino Carotone performed the theme song “La Trampa” for short-lived improvisational comedy Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show.

In 2003 he approached Amadou and Mariam and later produced their 2004 album Dimanche à Bamako (Sunday in Bamako).

His song “Me llaman Caye,” written for the 2005 Spanish film Princesas, earned that film a Goya nomination for Best Original Song. The artist has stated that this song will not be published on any album; however, vocals from the song are included in the Go Lem System song “Calle Go Lem.”

He is working on the soundtrack for the upcoming documentary film Maradona.

Style and influences

Manu Chao sings in French, Spanish, Arabic, Galician, Portuguese, English, and Wolof, often mixing them in the same song. His music has many influences: rock, French chanson, Iberoamerican salsa, reggae, and ska, and Algerian raï. These influences were obtained from immigrants in France, his Iberian relations, and foremost his travels in Mesoamerica as a wandering nomad following the disbanding of Mano Negra.

Many of Chao’s lyrics are about love, living in ghettos and immigration, and often carry a left-wing message. This reflects Chao’s own political leanings—he is very close to the Zapatista movement, whose leader Subcomandante Marcos is sampled heavily on Radio Bemba Sound System, and is openly critical of the Bush administration in the US. He has many followers among the European left and the anti-globalization movement, though some resent his being part of the music establishment.

Chao is also notable for his tendency to reuse music or lyrics from previous songs to form new songs. The hit single “Bongo Bong,” in contemporary French style, takes its lyrics from the earlier Mano Negra hit “King of the Bongo,” which owes more to The Clash. The musical backdrop for “Bongo Bong,” in turn, was used in several other Chao songs, including “Je ne t’aime plus” from the same album and “Mr Bobby” and “Homens” from Próxima Estación: Esperanza. The music from that album’s “La Primavera” is used in several other songs on that album, while lyrics for a few songs on Sibérie m’était contéee are repeated several times with different music, leading the lyrics to be interpreted in various ways depending on the mood of the track. Several musical themes and clips from that album also appear on Amadou & Mariam’s Chao-produced Dimanche à Bamako, which were being produced at approximately the same time.

Though Manu Chao is one of the world’s best selling artists, he is less well-known in the English-speaking world. Tours in the United States with Mano Negra never led to much success in that country, and Chao seems inclined to focus his efforts in Europe and Latin America, where his musical style finds its roots and his left-wing populism is more widely greeted. Though his live performances in the US are exceedingly rare, Chao played a handful of dates in that country in 2006, including a headlining spot at Lollapalooza 2006. His final appearance on his 2006 U.S. tour was a benefit concert in the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn, New York on August 7th. In front of a jubilant, sweaty crowd, Chao performed a two and a half hour set that included an hour of encores.

“Manu Chao” song

In 2003 the punk rock band Les Wampas, founded in 1983, had their first hit with the song “Manu Chao”, whose chorus translates into: “If I had Manu Chao’s wallet, I’d go on holidays at least to the Congo… If I had Louise Attaque’s bank account, I’d go on holidays at least until Easter.”

Didier Wampas declared he was critical of the attitude of certain artists (Manu Chao, Noir Désir) who, while showing themselves critical of the system, make a very good living out of it. Incidentally, former Les Wampas double-bass player Alain Wampas left the group in the 1980s to perform with Manu Chao in Los Carayos and Mano Negra, and current guitarist Jo Dahan previously performed with Manu Chao in Mano Negra.