Manu Chao
  • real name: Oscar Tramor
  • born in France, June 26, 1961 from Spanish immigrants, brought up multi-cultural and multilingual.
  • Started Mano Negra with his brother after playing in various bands as a teenager. Mano Negra lasts 7 albums. Some great songs I remember dancing on: King Kong Five ('89), King of Bongo ('91).
  • The band splits after Casa Babylon (1994).
  • Manu continues his work in the group Radio Bemba, with some musicians of Mano Negra.
  • Using experiences from his travels in South- and Central America (mostly misery), he releases his first solo album Clandestino in 1998. People in Europe and Latin America love the album, the US catches on a year after its release.
  • Mainstream success comes with the second album Proxima Estacion: Esperanza and the song Me Gustas Tu
  • .
  • Manu is well known for his political activism, focussing on the exploitation of 3rd world countries and anti-globalization. While I can certainly identify myself with a lot of his ideas, he DID sign multi-$$$ contracts with multinationals (EMI, Virgin, ...). A 'sold-out' or is he just using the 'enemy' to get a larger audience ? To be fair to him, the same criticism goes for artists like U2 or Sting.

  • In my opinion one should buy his records because they are good, and let's just call the attention he gets for the 3rd world -problems a very, very, very good side-effect.