Manu Chao

Biography

Manu Chao is a French singer and activist of Spanish (Galician-Basque) origin. He sings mainly in Spanish, French, English and Portuguese although occasionally in a number of other languages as well. Chao began his musical career with Hot Pants, a French band that combined several musical styles and languages. He then founded the band Mano Negra with his brother Antoine and several friends in 1987. The band became famous in Europe and Latin America but split in 1995. Manu embarked on to a solo artist career after the separation and released the album “Clandestino” in 1998, who sold over 3 million copies and changed the path of his musical career. Clandestino was supposed to mix electronic music with traditional tracks and vocals but a computer bug crashed all the electronic tracks and revealed the real essence of the album.

How we met:

It was a rainy day in Barcelona along the waterfront as 10 or more musicians gathered under a large umbrella to jam. While shooting and recording we noticed a man standing just beyond the musicians. Within minutes, that man had picked up a guitar and stepped in to jam with the group. When he began to sing, we recognized him to be Manu Chao. Manu’s unbelievable energy and love for music brought us back to Barcelona years later to capture his performance on “One Love.”