Manau

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Martial Tricoche in an appearance in 2010

Manau is a French hip hop group founded in 1998 , which became known for mixing elements of traditional Celtic music with modern rap beats.

Originally the band consisted of the musicians Martial Tricoche, Cédric Soubiron and RV (Hervé) Lardic. After Lardic left the group, Gregor Gandon joined the group. Even though the group is based in Paris , all members are from Brittany . The name of the group is derived from the old Gaelic name of the Isle of Man .

History of the band

The beginnings

In 1988, Tricoche and Soubiron started a radio show on a regional FM station. Martial directed the show and Cédric worked as a DJ in the background. This show ran for two years and brought the two a large number of fans. At the end of the show, Cédric managed to get a job at the popular radio station Skyrock.

A few years later, Cédric met RV, who was performing live on the station with his band MeanWhile . He had just completed seven years of training at the Paris Conservatory of Music and played guitar, bass, accordion and keyboard. Both quickly had discussions about founding their own group.

Martial had meanwhile started a career as a songwriter. One of his brother's friends had made him interested in Celtic culture and he quickly began to discover the works of Breton folk stars such as Dan Ar Braz , Yann-Fañch Kemener and the group Tri Yann . Martial's early songs were also very much influenced by Jean Markale's novella L'épopée Celte and influences of Celtic folklore with druids and Celtic warriors.

The formation of the band

Shortly after Cédric and RV met, both met with Martial to form the Manau group. They worked on a so far unique synthesis of traditional Celtic rhythms and melodies on the one hand and rap beats on the other. One of her demo tapes landed on the creative director's desk at Polydor . Impressed by the new sound, he immediately offered them a record deal.

The band recorded a single called La Tribu de Dana , which went on sale in May 1998. The song immediately achieved hit status, 1.7 million records have been sold to date, 1.5 million of them in the first few months after its release. La tribu de Dana means the tribe of Dana and is the name of an Irish tribe described in the novella L'épopée Celte .

Although it was a pop song, it sounded very familiar to fans of older music too. The reason was that the chorus of the song resembled the melody and arrangement from Alan Stivell's 1970s hit Tri martolod . Stivell promptly sued the group. Manau took the view that the song was merely a basis and had been changed to such an extent that the allegation of plagiarism was unfounded.

success

Motivated by the success of the single, Polydor's marketing directors asked the band to record a debut album. Although the completion deadlines were very tight, Manau got to work immediately. They brought in Loïc Taillebrest , a well-known folk musician who was known for his bagpipes and bombing skills , for support .

After a few weeks, work on the debut album Panique celtique was finished. The album was released in July 1998 and, as expected, became a best seller. 500,000 copies were quickly sold, the million mark was reached after a year.

Manau's name recognition increased exponentially. Soon the group was invited to various music festivals such as the famous Francofolies festival in La Rochelle and the annual music festival in Marseille . They performed together with the legendary French folk group Tri Yann at the Saint Renan Festival in Brittany.

In Germany, the band gained fame because the radio station SWR3 played La Tribu de Dana frequently and invited Manau to the annual New Pop Festival in Baden-Baden .

Changes

In early 1999 the group embarked on a major national tour, in the middle of which they received the award for Best Rap / Groove Album at Victoires de la Musique , the annual French music awards ceremony in Paris in February . Shortly thereafter, Hervé decided to leave the band and continue working with his old band MeanWhile.

The hit trio had become a hit duo. But that didn't seem to bother the fans, they kept coming to see and hear their stars Martial and Cédric.

Once again

In the fall of 2000 Manau once again made it into the center of the French music news when they released their second album, Fest Noz de Paname . They had spent a year in the studio perfecting the sound, and their sound had matured significantly after touring eight consecutive months. Moving away from the Celtic rap fusion style with which they had made a name for themselves, the group now began to experiment with new genres and work with different artists. The album contains two duets with Maurane and Dee Dee Bridgewater .

A successor appeared in 2005, but was less successful than its predecessor.

return

After prior announcement on their website, Manau will release their fourth album to date on December 12, 2011 with the name Panique Celtique II: Le village . This album contains eleven previously unknown tracks and ties in with their first album in terms of both style and content, which is already evident from the title of the album.

In between, the album "best of" and the album "Seul et en Silence-Acousitc" were released in 2007.

In 2013 the album "Fantasy" came out, which ties in with the original style of the band.

In 2019 the latest album "Nouvelle vague" was released, in which popular folk songs were partly processed.

In 2020 a new single was released: Men in Glaz

Band members

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
FR FR MOVE BE W DE DE CH CH
1998 Panique Celtique FR1
diamond
diamond

(78 weeks)FR 		BE W2
platinum
platinum

(64 weeks)BE W 		DE75 (5 weeks)
DE 		CH34
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(25 weeks)CH
2000 Fest noz de Paname FR21st
gold
gold

(20 weeks)FR 		BE W21 (14 weeks)
BE W 		- CH16 (15 weeks)
CH
2005 On Peut Tous Rever FR82 (5 weeks)
FR 		- - CH88 (2 weeks)
CH

More albums

  • 2007: Best Of
  • 2007: Seul et en Silence - Acoustique
  • 2011: Panique Celtique II: Le village
  • 2013: Fantasy
  • 2019: Nouvelle Vogue

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
FR FR MOVE BE W DE DE CH CH
1998 La Tribu de Dana
Panique Celtique 		FR1
diamond
diamond

(27 weeks)FR 		BE W1
Triple platinum
× 3
Triple platinum

(39 weeks)BE W 		DE89 (2 weeks)
DE 		CH-
gold
gold
CH
Panique Celtique
Panique Celtique 		FR9
gold
gold

(16 weeks)FR 		BE W9
gold
gold

(19 weeks)BE W 		- -
Mais qui est la belette?
Panique Celtique 		FR1
gold
gold

(23 weeks)FR 		BE W1
platinum
platinum

(22 weeks)BE W 		- -
1999 L'avenir est un long passé
Panique Celtique 		FR30 (15 weeks)
FR 		BE W32 (4 weeks)
BE W 		- -
La confession
Panique Celtique 		FR32 (16 weeks)
FR 		BE W36 (1 week)
BE W 		- -
2000 Tout le monde ... (... a besoin de tout le monde)
Fest noz de Paname 		FR16
gold
gold

(20 weeks)FR 		BE W18 (12 weeks)
BE W 		- -
2001 Fest noz de Paname
Fest noz de Paname 		FR63 (3 weeks)
FR 		- - -

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ a b Chart sources: FR BEW DE CH
  2. ↑ a b Awards for music sales: CH FR1 FR2 BEW