Organised by Alliance Française de Dhaka, the concert, titled "Sibérie m'était contée" Asian Tour, was arranged in association with the support of the Embassy of France to Bangladesh and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
In front of the jam-packed crowd at the venue, Manu and his guitarist performed several of his popular French and Spanish scores including his popular track "La Vida Tómbola" which was featured in the documentary film Maradona by Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica.
The duo then performed along with Bangladeshi Percussionist Mithun Chakraborty, also known as Mithun Chakra, and the crowd was tentalized with the collaboration.
“Manu is an amazing talent. We could not practice together even for more than half an hour just before the concert, yet we managed to speak the universal language of music at this concert”, Mithun told UNB.
The crowd loved every bit of this show, and it was reflected by the dancing audiences. “We did not understand a single word of his songs, but his performance did not let us sit for a minute and we never saw this much energy in any performance at this venue ever before”, Imtiaz, a student of East West University, told UNB.
Thanking his mesmerized Bangladeshi audience in the venue, Manu expressed his gratefulness while talking to UNB, saying “Never really imagined this sort of overwhelming appreciation even at this time of Corona epidemic. I am very happy to perform here in Dhaka and really grateful to this amazing crowd.”
Alliance Française de Dhaka’s Director Olivier Dintinger said they are very proud to present this eccentric concert in Bangladesh and expect to thrive the cultural bonding further between the two countries.
Manu Chao, a world renowned artist who performs in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Greek and occasionally in other languages .
One of the genius followers of Bob Marley, Manu Chao began his musical career in Paris, busking and playing with groups such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos which combined a variety of languages and musical styles. With friends and his brother Antoine Chao, he founded the band Mano Negra in 1987, achieving considerable success, particularly in Europe. After its breakup in 1995, Manu Chao became a solo artist and since then tours regularly with his live band, Radio Bemba.
As part of his Asian tour, Manu Chao rocked several cities in India including Ahmedabad, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai and Kolkata, before stepping inside Dhaka for the first time ever. On Tuesday, he roamed and performed in the Dhaka University campus, exploring the color fest of Holi.
As part of the Asian tour, Manu’s next destination is Colombo, Sri Lanka.