Biography of Manu Chao

Nomadic and rebellious spirit

June 21, 1961
Maybe when he composed his music locked in his lean-to, dreaming of success, but it is unlikely that imagined the magnitude assumed international at the height of his career. The fact is that José Manuel Thomas Artur Chao before becoming known worldwide under the name of Manu Chao (but for a time was known as Oscar Tramore), it was a simple guitar. Now it instead became the banner of the no-global movement, singing symbol of the underprivileged of the world and of those who question the current neoliberal policy that has been spreading across the globe and that, from that point of view, is destroying the planet and impoverishing large slices of the world's population. An icon like so many, rebellious within the varied universe, but also a responsibility that this cute character, born in Paris on June 21, 1961 (his mother was from Bilbao and her father is a native of Galicia), sometimes seems to accept with some fear.
The love for the exploited, marginalized and persecuted is still a family heirloom. At his home, his father already gave hospitality to many refugees of South American dictatorships. The little Oscar had the opportunity, in a miserable little guitar strum and the other pulled down from the wall of the Hall that his had hung as a decorative element, to hear speeches by intellectuals and artists fled from their lands. Spend a few years and the young Oscar, now friends just call Manu, starts to get noticed in the Parisian underground music environment playing rockabilly band "Hot Pants", with "Joint de Culasse" and "Los Carayos". In 1987 with the help of his cousin Saints Casariego, former drummer of "Hot Pants", realize the dream of putting together a group open to any musical style, from rockabilly to reggae, from rap to ska, from salsa to flamenco. He founded the "Mano negra", taking its name from the Andalucian anarchist group and gathering around him French, North African musicians of Spanish origin. The result is new and sound alternatives, especially for American ears, accustomed to tasteless slop of the typical 80 's radio stations.
Thanks to exciting live performances (most of the time, especially the most abandoned areas of Metropolitan French suburbs) and particularly successful albums such as "Puta's fever" (1989), "King of the Bongo" (1991) "Casa Babylon" (1993), Mano Negra, are meeting with success that exceeds all expectations. The successful adventure with the band however ends in 1994, "for lack of original motives," as will say Manu. It gives then start on another project: to gather old and new friends, moving together in a spacious apartment of Madrid's Gran Via and give rise to a collective of musicians. The project is realized under the name "Radio Bemba" and at first seems to give good results. But Manu, nomadic and rebellious spirit, fails to catch stars. Say hello to your friends with a "Goodbye" and leaves for a long journey that will take him to beat the dusty roads of Africa, Latin America, and the first, then. Back with a backpack full of tapes on which he recorded sounds, voices, stories of cultures he met along the way. Calling old friends, plus new ones. Everyone answers the call, bringing your own instrument.
Closes in a recording studio with them and, before long, he recorded his first solo album, "Stowaway" (1998), an album dominated by Mexican, Brazilian rhythms or Orvieto from, with songs sung in different languages (Spanish, English, Portuguese and French), telling all his wanderings in music. Had to be an album for a few close friends, instead became a global success, the result also more word-of-mouth that the usual notice, pounding marketing campaign. The success is repeated with the second album, "Proxima estacion: Esperanza" (2001). The formula is the same as the previous job, but here seems more present a mood upbeat and partier, though obviously there are tugs against the oppressor and the suffering of the excluded.
Manu Chao sentiment towards the dispossessed of the Earth is not only formal, but also practical: like the time he traveled to Chiapas to hold a concert for the Indians of the community of Polho (close to the zapatista National Liberation Army). Stopped by the police, poor Manu Chao was held for several hours in room safe from the Mexican police. Released into the wild in a short time, he returned to sing his songs, so colourful and tasty, in front of an audience that loves so much and so much reciprocated.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.