Manu Chao

When popular French rock band Mano Negra disbanded in the mid-‘90s, founder and lead singer Manu Chao decided to keep roaming. The band started in 1987 busking in the Paris subway, and at the height of fame, it toured South America by freight train and boat. Once on his own, Chao continued traveling the Americas, studying the chaotic urban symphonies of street bands, public markets, and fellow migrants, eventually pouring his vivid stories into the wanderlust manifesto, 1998’s Clandestino. Movement has been a lifelong constant for Manu Chao, born in 1961 Paris to Spanish immigrants fleeing Francisco Franco's brutal regime. Even in music, Chao's natural inertia propelled him from band to band and through nearly a dozen languages, leaving a trail of influential projects including Hot Pants and Los Carayos, and a globally accessible songbook. Manu Chao grew into a fierce critic of capitalist globalization and has expressed solidarity with Mexico's Zapatista movement—a rebellious, conscientious spirit that continued shaping his music across freewheeling gems Próxima Estación: Esperanza (2001) and La Radiolina (2007).