Manu Chao is the World.

I have always known the world is smaller to me but it was not apparent to me until I was cruising down the Sunset Strip blasting "Merry Blues" by Manu Chao. The lady next to me looked over, recognized I was playing an international artist who happens to be my favorite musician of all time, nodded her head and smiled. She knew about Manu Chao, the question is: Do You?

Manu Chao was born to Spanish parents who were living in France to escape persecution under Franco. He grew up in Paris where he started his first band Hot Pants, after that band broke up he moved to Madrid where he played in a band called "Mano Negra." That band split and he become simply Manu Chao, his band was called Radio Bemba. They have released three studio albums and one live album.

Listening to Manu Chao is like listening to the pulse of the world. He sings in English, Spanish, French, Arabic,Portuguese, and Portunol (a Spanish Portugese hybrid). His music styles range from Caribbean rock, hard punk rock, salsa, meringue, jam band, and plain just rock and roll. Check out this beautiful song below.

I have seen Manu Chao in concert once, and it was an experience. The crowd was global, every race you could imagine was there. So in this world, where a country's borders are just lines on a map, Manu Chao is what is really really good.