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Manu Chao is a powerful voice in the Latin Alternative scene. His music is multilingual and broadly multicultural, blending rock, reggae, punk, ska, found sounds, and more. The Paris-born, Barcelona-dwelling artist of Spanish descent finds inspiration in street culture and local bar scenes. He has long collaborated with musicians of diverse cultures, as he does in Radio Bemba, the group that has performed with him since Mano Negra disbanded. Chao was born on June 26, 1961, in Paris to Spanish parents, his father, Ramon Chao, a respected writer, comes from Galicia, his mother Bilbao. Growing up bilingual, he was also influenced by the punk scene across the English Channel that happened while he was still in his teens. As a teen he played in bands, including a rockabilly outfit called Les Hot Pants, which won local critical praise but never went anywhere before breaking up. After that, Chao and his cousin began Mano Negra, named for an anarchist organization that operated in Spain. Chao then returned to South and Central America, spending the next few years drifting around with his guitar and a four-track, recording here and there. The resultant collection of songs was released in 1998 (1999 in the U.S.) under the title Clandestino and included a reworking of the Mano Negra track "King of Bongo," which was picked up for use on the soundtrack to Madonna's The Next Big Thing. In 2000 Chao played a rare pair of shows in Los Angeles, and in June 2001 released Proxima Estacion: Esperanza, which showed that his musical self had been spending the last couple of years soaking up the sounds of the Caribbean. This was further explored on Radio Bemba Sound System, a live recording done in 2002 that was taken from the tour following Proxima Estacion: Esperanza. In 2007, Radiolina, the artist's first studio album in six years, came out.

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