Manu Chao new single

Manu Chao releases a new single La Vida Tombola, on digital download through Because, from Monday 19th January. La Vida Tombola is featured in a documentary about the life of Argentinean football legend Diego Maradona, by Serbian director Emir Kusturica. The film, Maradona by Kusturica, was part of the official selection at Cannes this year and will be released in the UK by Optimum Films in 2009.

The friendship between Manu Chao and Diego Maradona goes back to the day the young Chao saw the equally young Maradona – clad in Boca team strip or maybe the Argentine national colours – dribble a football with his magic left foot. Chao first paid tribute to "El Diego Dios" in 1994 with the song Santa Maradona, from the last Mano Negra album.

La Vida Tombola is the soundtrack to the symbolic renaissance of a redeemed Maradona, who spun into a whirlwind of drugs, excess, dieting, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, and now stands proud despite the tackles he has weathered both inside and outside the stadium. La Vida Tombola has already been a huge hit across Europe and is taken from Chao's latest, highly acclaimed album La Radiolina.

February 19th 2009 also sees the long awaited UK release of the book The Train of Ice and Fire, which tells the story of the infamous tour of Colombia by Mano Negra in 1993, which ultimately led to their break-up and set Manu Chao off on his new musical path. Chronicling the journey was Ramón Chao, a distinguished writer, broadcaster and father of Manu. The book follows a group of French artists, acrobats, tattooists and assorted entertainers who set off through the heart of Colombia on a reclaimed train putting on free concerts at railway stations along the way. Ramón is on hand to tell the story of the trip, but also to cast one eye to the social and political context of the land through which they travel, one of the most beautiful, but also most dangerous, countries in the world.

Earlier this year Because re-issued Proxima Estacion: Esperanza, Radio Bemba Sound System and a live DVD 'Babylonia en Guagua'. 'Proxima Estacion: Esperanza' is Manu's Grammy nominated, second studio album, originally released in 2001, following the enormous success of 'Clandestino' in 1998. The album takes it's name from one of Madrid's metro stations, translating literally as 'Next Station: Hope'. The album sold 3 million copies worldwide and lead to the live tour 'Proxima Estacion: Esperanza', which in turn resulted in the million-selling 2002 live album 'Radio Bemba Sound System'.

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