LiberPress Song Award 2012

Manu Chao (Paris, 1961), son of Ramón Chao (Villalba, Lugo) and Felisa Ortega (Bilbao), began his career in Paris as a street musician, playing in groups like Hot Pants and Los Carayos. He currently lives in Barcelona. Manu is known for his defence of freedom and his political ideals, and many of his songs speak of life in ghettos and immigration. His own family had to emigrate from Spain to France during Franco’s dictatorship, and his grandfather was sentenced to death by Franco’s regime. In 1987, with his brother Antoine and some friends, he created Mano Negra, and started playing in the Paris metro. Manu was the leader of this group, which has become a legend, and wrote the songs. To reach places where no band had ever played before, they organised a rail trip along abandoned tracks in the Colombian jungle. The adventure is described by his father, Ramón Chao, in the book Mano Negra en Colombia. Un tren de hielo y fuego (2001).

After the band broke up, he began his solo career and performed with Radio Bemba. He also started a circus show A Feira das mentiras, which travelled widely in northern Spain. His first album, Clandestino, was described by The New York Times as the true music of the 21st century, and his songs were sung on the streets of Spain during protests against the Aliens Act.

During his 2001 tour, Manu Chao’s ability to draw crowds more than filled Central Park in New York, and his free concert in Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona was attended by more than 90,000 people. After the success of his first single, Manu left Virgin Records, Mano Negra’s recording company at the time, in protest at the lay-offs of workers by the label. Manu Chao is one of today’s most popular artists and is an opinion leader in this globalised world. He travels continuously and is a member of the Attac movement, a supporter of the Zapatistas and the legalization of marijuana and a symbol of anti-establishment movements (from squatting to anti-globalisation demonstrations). He has worked extensively with the Polish artist Wozniak. He won the best song category in the twentieth edition of the Goya Awards with Me llaman Calle, by Princesas (2005). His recording output is very extensive: with Mano Negra he recorded nine albums, including América Perdida (1991) and Casa Babylon (1994). The solo album Clandestino (1998) won a prize for the best music album in the world in the 1999 French Victoires de la Musique awards. Other recordings include Próxima estación: Esperanza (2001); Radio Bemba Sound System (2002), and La Radiolina (2007). In 2008 he recorded Estación México at a clandestine concert in the Foro Alicia, sold exclusively in Mexico for the benefit of the EZLN and the political prisoners from San Salvador Atenco. He has also worked with Todos Tus Muertos, Sabina, Anouk, Tonino Carotone and other musicians.