Lou Bega

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

A Little Bit of Mambo   DE 3  gold 07/26/1999 (18 weeks)   CH 1  platinum 08/01/1999 (32 weeks)   AT 1  gold 08/01/1999 (16 weeks)   UK 50 09/18/1999 (2 weeks)   US 3  × 3 Triple platinum 09/25/1999 (46 weeks) Ladies and gentlemen   CH 23 06/10/2001 (9 weeks)   AT 31 06/10/2001 (3 weeks) Free Again   CH 78 06/06/2010 (1 week)

Singles

Mambo No. 5   DE 1  × 3 Triple platinum 05/03/1999 (28 weeks)   CH 1  × 2 Double platinum 05/09/1999 (50 weeks)   AT 1  platinum 05/30/1999 (23 weeks)   UK 1  × 2 Double platinum 08/14/1999 (21 weeks)   US 3 09/06/1999 (22 weeks) I got a girl   DE 19th 09/10/1999 (12 weeks)   CH 20th 03/10/1999 (23 weeks)   AT 19th 09/19/1999 (8 weeks)   UK 55 12/06/1999 (2 weeks) Tricky Tricky   US 74 02/07/2000 (3 weeks) gentleman   DE 35 05/11/2001 (9 weeks)   CH 62 05/13/2001 (12 weeks)   AT 16 05/13/2001 (12 weeks) Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody   DE 94 08/03/2001 (1 week) Bachata   DE 100 08/25/2006 (1 week) Boyfriend   DE 71 05/21/2010 (1 week) Sweet Like Cola   DE 38 08/06/2010 (5 weeks)

Lou Bega (* 13. April 1975 in Munich as David Lubega ) is a German Latin pop - singer . He is particularly famous for his song Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of ...) known.

life and career

Bega's Ugandan father and Italian mother both came to Germany in the 1970s. As a teenager, he spent a few years in Miami . At the age of 16 he published there in 1991 under the pseudonym ART feat. Moe D. Cay the single I Need You! on Virgin Records .

breakthrough

After returning to Munich, he met the manager Goar Biesenkamp . In collaboration with the composer Christian Pletschacher alias "Zippy" and the producers Achim Kleist and Wolfgang von Webenau , the song Mambo No. 5 . The song is a cover of the song of the same name by Pérez Prado from 1952, to which Bega added text and a new chorus melody. During the production of the song, it was not certain whether the song should be released at all.

Mambo No. 5 became a world hit in the summer of 1999. In Germany he was number one in the single charts for eleven weeks and achieved double platinum status. This was followed by positions at the top of the charts in over 20 countries. B. France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The single climbed to number three on the US Billboard charts. In total, the single sold over eight million times worldwide. The associated album A Little Bit of Mambo also reached number one in numerous countries and number three and triple platinum in the USA.

Giovanni Zarrella , Jana Ina and Lou Bega at a press conference for the show "Festival" by "Holiday on Ice"

His second single, I Got a Girl , reached the top 20 of the charts in five countries. The third single Tricky Tricky was # 18 on the Canadian and # 75 on the US Billboard charts. It followed at number eleven in the French charts with the title Mambo Mambo .

In 2000 Bega received the German music award ECHO in two categories and was nominated five times. He was also nominated for a Grammy and received the World Music Award in Cannes . Awards such as the “Blockbuster Entertainment Award” in Los Angeles, “Festival Bar” in Verona / Italy, the “ Amadeus Award ” in Vienna and third place at the “ Bunte - New Faces Award ” in Berlin followed.

Due to the great success of the first album and especially its hit single, Lou Bega is often referred to or perceived as a one-hit wonder , which annoys the musician: “Of course every other song besides Mambo No. 5 a failure. "

Further career

Lou Bega recorded the theme song and a music video for the computer game The Jungle Book by the Walt Disney Company .

The album Ladies and Gentlemen includes the duet Baby Keep Smiling , which Lou Bega recorded with the now deceased Cuban artist Compay Segundo from Buena Vista Social Club .

In May 2010 the album Free Again was released , from which the singles Boyfriend and Sweet Like Cola were decoupled. They were able to occupy number 71 and 37 respectively in the German charts. The album A Little Bit of 80’s followed in 2013 , on which he covered pop hits, for example by Culture Club , Sade Adu and KC and the Sunshine Band .

Bega has also been working as a composer for the German dance project Groove Coverage since 2002 . So far he has participated in thirteen of the band's songs. His most successful composition for Groove Coverage was the song God Is a Girl from 2002. To date, the band has sold well over 13 million records worldwide.

Live shows and appearances

His numerous concerts include a USA tour with Cher , where Bega appeared as a "special guest", and appearances in South America and the Indian subcontinent. Bega also appeared repeatedly for international companies, princes and at corporate events. He was booked by the Moroccan king for a birthday party. Lou Bega has appeared on many US TV shows and specials, including The Tonight Show , Ally McBeal , Motown Live, Jenny Jones and The Queen Latifah Show . In Wetten, dass ..? Lou Bega was the only artist who - with Mambo No. 5 - sang a song twice.

Others

In 2010, the question of the rights of use to Mambo No. 5 on a legal dispute between Bega and the heiress of Perez Prado: Bega and his co-author Pletschacher unsuccessfully demanded the determination that they were jointly the sole authors of the hit.

Bega lives in his house in Berlin-Zehlendorf . He is an evangelical Christian.

Lou Bega (1999)

Lou Bega (2014)

Discography

Albums

• 1999: A Little Bit of Mambo
• 2001: Ladies and Gentlemen
• 2006: Lounatic
• 2010: Free Again
• 2013: A Little Bit of 80s
• 2016: Best of - His greatest hits

Singles

• 1991: I Need You (as ART feat.Moe D. Cay )
• 1999: Mambo No. 5
• 1999: I Got a Girl
• 1999: Baby Keep Smiling
• 2000: Tricky, Tricky
• 2000: Mambo Mambo
• 2000: Be there (as 1-2-Fly feat. D. Lubega )
• 2001: gentleman
• 2001: Just a Gigolo
• 2006: Bachata
• 2006: You Wanna Be Americano
• 2007: Conchita ( feat.Klazz Bros. & Cuba Percussion )
• 2010: Boyfriend
• 2010: Sweet Like Cola
• 2011: This Is Ska
• 2013: Give It Up
• 2014: Vamos a La Playa
• 2016: Hands Up for Love
• 2019: Scatman & Hatman (with Scatman John )

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Denmark 2018: for the single Mambo No. 5  France 2001: for the single Mambo Mambo  Sweden 1999: for the single I Got a Girl  Spain 1999: for the album A Little Bit of Mambo 1999: for the single Mambo No. 5 2 × gold record  France 2000: for the album A Little Bit of Mambo

Platinum record  Australia 2000: for the album A Little Bit of Mambo  Netherlands 1999: for the single Mambo No. 5 3 × platinum record  Belgium 1999: for the single Mambo No. 5 4 × platinum record  Australia 1999: for the single Mambo No. 5

5 × platinum record  Canada 2001: for the album A Little Bit of Mambo Diamond record  France 1999: for the single Mambo No. 5

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	diamond	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	5 × platinum5	-	350,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	-	3 × platinum3	-	150,000	ultratop.be
Denmark (IFPI)	gold1	-	-	45,000	ifpi.dk
Germany (BVMI)	gold1	3 × platinum3	-	1,750,000	musikindustrie.de
France (SNEP)	3 × gold3	-	diamond1	1,200,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
Canada (MC)	-	5 × platinum5	-	500,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	platinum1	-	75,000	nvpi.nl
Austria (IFPI)	gold1	platinum1	-	75,000	ifpi.at
Sweden (IFPI)	gold1	-	-	15,000	sverigetopplistan.se
Switzerland (IFPI)	-	3 × platinum3	-	150,000	hitparade.ch
Spain (Promusicae)	2 × gold2	-	-	100,000	Sólo éxitos: año año, 1959-2002
United States (RIAA)	-	3 × platinum3	-	3,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	-	2 × platinum2	-	1,200,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	9 × gold9	26 × platinum26th	diamond1

Web links

Commons : Lou Bega  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Lou Bega on MySpace
• Greenpoolmusic references
• Greenpoolmusic downloads
• Lou Bega at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
2. ↑ Lou Bega interview in the Bonedo podcast
3. ↑ https://lescharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Lou+Bega&titel=Mambo+Mambo&cat=s
4. ↑ [1] Bild.de : "The greatest one hit wonders of all time"
5. ↑ [2] Meto: "Top 10 One Hit Wonders"
6. ↑ [3] Express : Lou Bega: My life after the summer hit
7. ↑ http://www.officialcharts.de/suche.asp?search=lou+bega&x=0&y=0&country=de Media Control Charts
8. ↑ http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/lou-bega-gegen-perez-prado-juristentanz-um-mambo-no-1.751835
9. ↑ [4] SZ : "The Mambo King is dancing again"
10. ↑ [5] SZ : “Juristentanz um Mambo No. 5 "
11. ↑ http://www.telemedicus.info/urteile/Urheberrecht/Musikwerke/810-BGH-Az-I-ZR-4906-Mambo-No.-5.html
12. ↑ Pop star Lou Bega now sings for Jesus. Retrieved June 13, 2018 . 
13. ↑ http://www.hitparade.ch/showperson.asp?name=Lou+Bega
14. ↑ Be there at Discogs . Retrieved November 11, 2019.