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Manu Chao music biography continued...

1961 in Paris, France, Chao and other musicians formed the Spanish/English rockabilly group Hot Pants in the mid-1980s. In 1987, Manu, his brother Antoine, and their cousin Santiago Casariego, founded the multiracial band Mano Negra. Starting on a smaller label, the group released a reworked version of the Hot Pants single "Mala Vida," which quickly became a hit in France. The group was soon signed to Virgin Records, and their first album Patchanka was released the following year. Though the Mano Negra never gained much fame in the English-speaking market, popularity throughout the rest of the world soon followed, reaching the Top #5 in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.



As a result of legal problems, Manu disbanded Mano Negra and moved to Madrid in 1995, where he formed a new group--Radio Bemba Sound System. Manu spent the next few years traveling around central and South America, picking up the music of the streets. The resultant Collection of songs was released in 1998 (1999 in the U.S.) under the title Clandestino and included a reworking of the Mano Negra track "King of Bongo," which was picked up for use on the soundtrack to Madonna's The Next Big Thing. The album itself took off very slowly, but after a year gained momentum and became a major hit in the Latin alternative scene. With lyrics freely mixing French, Spanish and English, Manu Chao had established himself as a major international star. In 2001 Manu came out with a new album, Proxima Estacion: Esperanza, which was influenced by the sounds of the Caribbean. He followed in 2004 with his first French language only album in several years-- Sibérie M'était Contéee. Manu continues to record and perform in several different languages including English, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, French, Arabic and Wolof, sometimes mixing them in the same song. He has become one of the world's best-selling artists, a global musical ambassador who is welcomed everywhere he travels.