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"Manu Chao (born June 21, 1961 in Paris); real name José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao; (also occasionally credited as Oscar Tramor) is a French Latin singer of Galician-Basque Spanish origin. Manu Chao sings in French, Spanish, Arabic, Galician, Portuguese, English, and Wolof, often mixing them in the same song. His music has many influences: rock, French chanson, Iberoamerican salsa, reggae, ska, and Algerian raï. These influences were obtained from immigrants in France, his Iberian relations, and foremost his travels in Mesoamerica as a wandering nomad following the disbanding of Mano Negra.
Many of Chao's lyrics are about love, living in ghettos and immigration, and often carry a left-wing message. This reflects Chao's own political leanings—he is very close to the Zapatista movement, whose public spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, is sampled heavily on Radio Bemba Sound System, and is openly critical of the Bush administration in the US. He has many followers among the European left and the anti-globalization movement, though some resent his being part of the music establishment.
Chao is also notable for his tendency to reuse music or lyrics from previous songs to form new songs. The hit single 'Bongo Bong,' in contemporary French style, takes its lyrics from the earlier Mano Negra hit 'King of the Bongo,' which owes more to The Clash. The musical backdrop for 'Bongo Bong,' in turn, was used in several other Chao songs, including 'Je ne t'aime plus' from the same album and 'Mr Bobby' and 'Homens' from Próxima Estación: Esperanza. The music from that album's 'La Primavera' is used in several other songs on that album, while lyrics for a few songs on Sibérie m'était contéee are repeated several times with different music, leading the lyrics to be interpreted in various ways depending on the mood of the track. Several musical themes and clips from that album also appear on Amadou & Mariam's Chao-produced Dimanche à Bamako, which were being produced at approximately the same time."
[reproduced or excerpted from the Wikipedia article "Manu Chao" and its use is thus licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License]
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