Manu Chao is an artist who is unfamiliar and incomprehensible to a good life. He saw everything from the Paris ghetto to drug transplants in Colombia. Who doesn't know Manu Chao's hit “Bongo Bongo”? He is understood by both outcasts and the mighty of this world; his music accepts the weakness and powerlessness of the listener, tired of life's adversities. Let's find out more about this amazing person.
Biography
Manu Chao is an artist, composer and songwriter. His career began in the band Mano Negra, he later separated and continued his career as a solo artist.
The biography of Manu Chao began in Paris on June 21, 1961 in a family of poor Spaniards who immigrated to France before his birth. When a child was born in the family, it was decided to move to the suburbs, where the future singer’s childhood passed. Ramon Chao, the father of the boy, became famous as a well-known journalist and writer. The childhood of the future musician mainly took place on the street, where he played football with the children of workers at the Renault Automobile Plant, which was not far from his house.
Manu Chao had an excellent musical taste in his childhood: he often listened to the recordings of Chuck Berry, as well as the music of the Spanish revolutionaries. A huge influence on the future work of the boy was made by British rock, especially the Clash band, which became one of his favorites. The first group Manu Chao played in was Les Hot Pants, organized in 1985. It was a mixture of country rock and rhythm and blues.
New era
The mid-eighties is the time of the development of the French alternative rock scene. At this time, many cult indie bands began to appear, such as Les Beruriers Noirs and Les Garçons bouchers. The groups for the most part were semi-legal, playing mainly in abandoned basements converted into clubs and on the streets at night. The singer played with his indie-rock band, Manu Chao's songs began to gain popularity in narrow circles.
The band Les Hot Pants ceases to exist, and in 1987, Manu, along with his brother and other talented musicians, decide to organize the La Mano Negra group. The participants formulated the main goal as follows: to reflect with the help of music the many cultural trends that surround them in life: Spain as a homeland, France as a place where all participants lived for a long time, and North Africa, since all friends and acquaintances from their area came from exactly from there. June 1987 was the year of the release of their first Patchanka record.
La mano negra
Mano Negra (translated as "black hand") is the name of a well-known terrorist organization, whose members were from developing countries, but were sadly famous for the terrorist attacks in Spain. In 1985, Manu and his associates decided to create a group of the same name. The participants were mainly from Paris. The main hit of the group was the song "Bad Life", recorded in the basement. The composition was often played on local radio stations, and this helped novice musicians sign a contract with the well-known record company Virgin. The act caused serious dissonance among alternative musicians, but Mano Negra took this step because a contract with such a large company would help their style become more famous in the international field. The band members did not bend under the strict requirements of show business: the main condition for their cooperation with Virgin was complete independence from the record company. The music of Manu Chao began to gain momentum.
Popularity
Soon, the first Patchanka album, recorded in the studio in 1988, was presented to the general public. It included hits such as Flamenco-style Mala Vida, Darling Darling, Lonesome Bop, Rock Island Line and energetic Indios de Barcelona. The audience met this album perfectly, but after a while it became clear that the musicians did not fully reach their full potential due to lack of experience. This album was the beginning of the rise in popularity of the group: she performed at various European festivals, as well as in developing countries such as Peru and Ecuador. It was then that the press and the media called Mano Negra the international ethno-punk group. Photos of Manu Chao hung literally in every bar in Europe.
Putas fever
In 1989, Mano Negra presented to the general public the most popular album in its history under the provocative title Putas Fever ("Syphilis"). This album included hits such as King Kong Five, Pas assez de toi, Sidi H'Bibi (Arabic folk song), Rock n 'Roll band, Soledad, The rebel spell. The album became rather ambiguous: it was difficult to style it somehow, it incorporated such rhythms as hip-hop, indie, rock, as well as the style now called Texmex (Patchuko Hop). The influence of ska culture was especially felt in this album. Mano Negra is rightfully called the best alternative rock band in France. She was enthusiastically received by the public and traveled all over Europe. Japan, Europe and the first trips to Mexico and the USA were connected with the Putas Fever album, which was gaining more and more popularity every month. However, like the other albums of Manu Chao, this did not gain frenzied popularity in America.
American dream
An intermediate record between Putas Fever and the subsequent Mano Negra, the group presented to the public a collection of two albums called Amerika Perdida - with the help of it the collective tried to advance on the American stage, which was not an easy task. According to Manu, the United States cannot accept a musical group led by no manager; this is not amenable to their perception.
This and many reasons have led to the fact that the group was unable to advance far in either the United States or England. And even such serious interference did not prevent Mano Negra from making music: they acted as accompanying for Iggy Pop on his famous tour in North America, were participants in many alternative and rock festivals. Despite the fact that most of America did not know about the existence of this group, Mano Negra managed to gather a full house in London and arrange numerous concerts in the United States aimed at rallying. Even the popular No Doubt began by opening up Mano Negra in Los Angeles.
The end is a new beginning
The musical group came to South America and France with concerts with the band Todos Tus Muertos, and in 1995 the guys decided to relocate to Spain. Mano Negra stayed in Madrid, despite the many problems that existed in the environment. Conflicts between the group members have noticeably increased. When it became impossible to overcome, Manu unexpectedly created the Radio Bemba Sound System. This project was planned to be promoted at radio stations in Spain. The group formed absolutely spontaneously: some members of Mano Negra and musicians from other groups began to regularly gather for rehearsals. And Mano Negra itself ceased to exist in 1995. According to some newspapers, Manu began to invite new musicians to the group, but this did not suit the old participants.
By oneself
Manu returned to France in 1998. He presented to the general public sixteen songs in different languages (twelve in Spanish, two in French and one each in Portuguese and English) and showed the full breadth of his musical diversity. Manu Chao compared himself to a sponge soaking up the world around him, and then letting it out in the music. Moreover, according to the recognition of the musician, he could not identify the motifs presented by him in the album with absolute accuracy.
The album scattered in a short time, more than a million copies were sold. It was followed by the album Proxima Estacion: Esperanza. Manu began to be called a kind of political icon for the working class. Especially popular was the song with the intriguing title Me gustas tu. The solo work of Manu Chao is strikingly different from the work of Mano Negra: if the band played explosive punk rock, as Manu himself claimed, then Clandestino is a collection of various motifs from Africa, Mexico and Brazil. The mood of the whole album is soft and unobtrusive: it can be like the melancholy Desaparecido or the completely sad Je ne t'aime plus. The directness and lack of standards is a hallmark of all of Manu's works. Travel stories can be traced throughout the album. Manu writes a lot about the border areas of Spain, a kind of ghetto where its own, unknown life flows. The singer, by his own confession, never loved hasty wanderings and tours. He always found time for communication with local residents, recognized their customs and mores, played music in local bars. Manu Chao is famous for trying to live slowly and feel every moment of his life.
Personal life
Manu Chao throughout his creative career carefully concealed his personal life. Few women dream of a husband who constantly travels around the world. It is known that he never married, there were numerous rumors about illegitimate children, which were not confirmed by the singer.
Liberty
Manu Chao is that person who is not able to stay long in one place. When he moved to Barcelona, he argued that he wanted to warm himself from the cold and indifferent Paris in the warmth and sun. But in Barcelona, he could not stay for long: his essence as a traveler made itself felt. After all, even the first group was created by him in order to quench his thirst for travel and knowledge. And it cannot be said that this thirst was quenched in adulthood. He is a fickle person, at the same time trying to feel and understand the city in which he is located. The presence of friends in all corners of the globe pulled him to travel the world even more. The creation of the third band, Bemba Radio, is another way to satisfy the craving for the road.
Recipe for Manu Chao to create music - the combination of all kinds of traditions and sounds from around the world. Most of all, the musician loves Africa and South America. He says that if you look superficially, it seems that people are behind us for many years. But if you look closely, you can find that they are in many ways ahead of the West. The ideas of Manu Chao are truly unusual: he plans to collaborate with the Prodigy group. He would like to transform cold techno music into street music so that musicians around the planet can play it on traditional musical instruments.