Manu Chao: Catching Up With the ‘Travelling Man’
Travel Blog • Ben Keene • 08.30.07 | 11:57 AM ET
Although its Sept. 4 release date narrowly misses an opportunity to be played on thousands of North American stereos over the approaching holiday weekend, Manu Chao‘s forthcoming album, La Radiolina, already has the attention of music journalists in the U.S. and Europe. Writing in The New Yorker, in a story headlined Travelling Man, Sasha Frere-Jones describes the fourth release by the Latin artist as his “most direct yet, presenting him as a sincere man motivated equally by affection and quiet fury,” emphasizing the populist nature of Chao’s polyglot pop. We’ve already given away our feelings about Chao: We recently named him one of our Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet.
Frere-Jones hints at how Chao’s appealing blend of energy and social commentary, in addition to his versatility—on the new album he sings in five languages—have allowed his songs to cross borders and reach an international audience. Of Chao, Frere-Jones writes, “Few pop performers take the idea of being a global musician so literally.”
He begins the story with this great anecdote:
Toward the end of a live show, weary musicians often appeal to the audience with a stock phrase intended to invigorate the proceedings: “How is everyone feeling tonight?” “I can’t hear you!” “Cleveland, make some noise!” Manu Chao, a wiry forty-six-year-old of Spanish extraction who grew up in Paris, used a different tactic when he played the first of two sold-out shows in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in June. He shouted out the names of countries, and people cheered, often in reverse proportion to the nation’s population: “Uruguay!” Some whoops. “Costa Rica!” Roars. “Macedonia!” Total mayhem.
Chao also made his first U.S. television appearance earlier this month, sitting for an interview and performing on the Henry Rollins Show.
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