Manu Chao

Manu Chao was born on June 21, 1961, in Paris to Spanish parents. Growing up bilingual, As a teen he played in several punk rock bands before he formed Mano Negra and recorded their first single, "Mala Vida". Multilingual and decidedly multicultural, with an edge heavily influenced by the punk rock of the Clash, Mano Negra seemed comfortably at home in their music anywhere in the world until 1994. Chao then explored South and Central America, spending the next few years drifting around with his guitar and a four-track, recording as he pleased. The resultant collection of songs, Clandestino, was released in 1998. The album was a sleeper hit that found its niche in the burgeoning Latin alternative scene, even though its lyrics freely mixed English and French along with Spanish. In June 2001 Chao released Proxima Estacion: Esperanza, which showed he'd spent the last couple of years soaking up the sounds of the Caribbean. In 2004 Chao released his first French-only album, Sibérie M'était Contéee, a cycle of songs about Paris, and in 2007 he brought out Radiolina, the artist's first studio album in six years. Chao remained a popular live attraction, touring heavily all over the world and kept releasing new singles regularly since 2017. The dry spell for a new album ended with 2024's Viva Tu, which confirmed his bold style had changed little with the passage of time. ~ Chris Nickson & Mark Deming, Rovi