Belgrade (AFP)
Acoustic concerts in small committees, citizen activism, a piece with a crazy local band, but neither interview nor promotion: Manu Chao made a discreet tour in the Balkans, where his popularity is intact.
The French musician, who has just reissued his cult album "Clandestino" enriched by three unpublished, has been performing for nearly three hours in a student hall in Banja Luka in northern Bosnia on October 17, then in Nis in Serbia on the 19th, before taking the road to Sofia on the 22nd and playing in Skopje in North Macedonia on Thursday night.
According to the Balkan record company Menart, he also released a single on November 5 in collaboration with the Bosnian group Dubioza Kolektiv, with whom he shares anti-globalization and anticapitalist activism and whose explosive energy and incandescent on stage recall his concerts.
Manu Chao had already been invited by the Bosnians on their song "Red Carpet" in 2016, where they sang to the sound of brass and the rhythm of guitars and percussions packed "This is not a free world, just a free market" ("Ce is not a free world, just a free market ").
No need for promotion to fill the rooms, just word of mouth and social networks. In Nis, the organizers planned to print posters. But they did not have time to stick them in town as the tickets were sold, in just two hours, according to the organizers.
- Intimacy -
"Her wish was that there would be as little public as possible for the atmosphere to be intimate," said Sonja Urosevic, organizer of the 1,200-seat concert. "It seems that the guy wanted some privacy to play, and that's what I want too," adds Nikola Mladenovski, a 36-year-old Macedonian lawyer who came to the Skopje concert.
Manu Chao made a stopover in the Stara Planina region of Serbia, where militants and residents have been fighting for months against the construction of mini-hydro plants that destroy their daily environment, local media reported.
He gladly mixed with his audience after the concerts, but avoided media attention. A choice consistent with his discretion for several years, including the occasion of the release of the reissue of "Clandestino".
- 'Bloody bloody border' -
But in the Balkans, Manu Chao is a star. His concerts in 2008 and 2015 at the Exit festival in Novi Sad (northern Serbia), like the one at Tasmajdan in Belgrade in 2002, are still remembered. The man showed that it was possible to launch a party by shouting to Serbs "It's the panik, panik, panik on the device, too much traffic!"
Serbian director Emir Kusturica directed his video for the song "Rainin 'in paradize" (2007). Manu Chao composed a song from the soundtrack of Kusturica's film devoted to Diego Maradona, "La Vida Tombola" (2007).
A place of passage for hundreds of thousands of migrants since 2015, the Balkans resonate with Manu Chao's commitment to refugees and against borders. Many are now blocked, trapped by the closure of its doors by the European Union.
The track with Dubioza Kolektiv, "Cross The Line", is dedicated to them. It is "an ode to the determination, boldness and strength needed to leave one's homeland and face an uncertain future," according to Menart, who says Manu Chao is launching his "Bloody Bloody Border", a rehearsal for the title. 1998. "This continuous movement of people that can not be stopped by violence, barbed wire, or walls inspired this song," says Menart.
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