Manu Chao La Ventura

Manu Chao – born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao; June 21, 1961) is a French-born musical artist of Spanish origin. He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, Galician, and Portuguese and occasionally in other languages. Chao began his musical career in Paris, busking and playing with groups such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos, which combined a variety of languages and musical styles. During the 90’s the band set off on boat tour, playing in the South American ports, or on train tour performing at the train stations. Hard conditions on the tour escalated the rifts among the band members and caused that some members left the band. Manu Chao moved the band to Madrid soon after but the legal dispute with former members led to dismissing the band in 1995. Then Manu Chao lived a nomadic way of life in several Central and South American countries for some time. He got to know the life of the poorest but also learnt something about himself. His music drew closer to Latin American music, reggae and also electronic music. His first solo album Clandestino was released in 1998 and gained in popularity gradually. Nowadays it is considered to be one of the crucial milestones of world music. Manu Chao himself does not accept this category. And by right. His music oversteps the limits and artificially defined categories. His subsequent solo albums are also full of various melodies and deal with worries and pleasures of the ordinary man, life on the streets in big cities or in countryside. Manu Chao La Ventura!