Manu Chao’s songs are on message

It only makes sense that a singer who, in the course of one song, might switch from Spanish to English to French to Portuguese to Arabic and back to Spanish would eventually invent a word.

That’s exactly what Manu Chao did on his 1998 debut solo album with “Malegria,” a song title and lyric that would translate into English more or less as “sad happiness.”

Taking a break backstage before a sold-out concert earlier this year at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, the 46-year-old singer unknowingly wears an expression that would illustrate “malegria” perfectly in a dictionary.”*

Stumble it! | |