Who is Manu Chao?
Manu Chao, born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao, is a very well known musical artist. Manu Chao was born in Paris, France on 21 June 1961 to parents of Spanish descent. In addition to singing and playing guitar, Manu Chao is also a record producer, and most of the music he makes is considered to fit within the world music and reggae genres. Some also consider his music to feature aspects of punk, due to the strong political and social content of his lyrics. His songs are likely to contain lyrics that are decidedly left-wing, that criticize social issues such as immigration and globalization. For this reason, Manu Chao is considered by many to be as much a political activist as a musical artist. Manu Chao sings in a number of languages, often within the same song. He sings in his native language French, as well as in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. Manu Chao can also sing in two lesser -spoken languages, Galician and Wolof. His musical influences include rock, salsa, reggae, sk
Manuel Chao was born in the 15th arrondissement in Paris on June 21st 1961, but he spent his formative childhood years growing up in Sèvres, one of the city’s western suburbs. Manu was stimulated by an intellectual Latin atmosphere at home. His father, Ramon Chao, is a much-published writer and Latin American editor at Radio France Internationale. His paternal grandparents were Republicans who fled Franco’s dictatorship in Spain and eventually settled in France. Manu launched his music career in 1977, forming his own group Joint de Culasse. Manu’s group played a mix of rock hits from the 50s and 60s, their concerts often revolving around covers of Chuck Berry classics. “We were the local neighbourhood band, Manu told a journalist from French rock magazine Les Inrockuptibles in May ’94, “Every now and then we’d try and throw in a couple of covers of stuff by the Stooges, but to be honest that never went down too well!” 50s and 60s rock influences were soon swept away by a more radical m
