-Download the song
-Buy the album

(France/Spain) Here's a video with a real back story. The song "Me Llaman Calle" (My Name is Street) was originally written for the Spanish film "Princesas" directed by Fernando Leon de Aranda, about the friendship between two prostitutes. The song won a Goya award (the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar), and Manu Chao sent a representative of Hetaira, an organization that defends the rights of sex workers, in his place. She gave a restrained and dignified speech, holding the award aloft and saying "this is for all of us." When Chao later decided to make a video for the song, he called upon de Aranda, who in turn decided to draft some of the prostitutes of the neighborhood where the video was filmed (and members of Hetaira) into the project. The end result is a rather sweet video that captures the élan of the song, and the surprisingly upbeat and undaunted spirit of the women. When the video was ready for distribution in the USA it ran up against a problem-- in a show of hypocrisy and prudery, some channels refused to air it on the grounds that there were actual prostitutes appearing in it. A rather ironic stance, considering the ways in which most commercial videos portray women.

-Download the song
-Buy the album

(France/Spain) Here's a video with a real back story. The song "Me Llaman Calle" (My Name is Street) was originally written for the Spanish film "Princesas" directed by Fernando Leon de Aranda, about the friendship between two prostitutes. The song won a Goya award (the Spanish equivalent of an Oscar), and Manu Chao sent a representative of Hetaira, an organization that defends the rights of sex workers, in his place. She gave a restrained and dignified speech, holding the award aloft and saying "this is for all of us." When Chao later decided to make a video for the song, he called upon de Aranda, who in turn decided to draft some of the prostitutes of the neighborhood where the video was filmed (and members of Hetaira) into the project. The end result is a rather sweet video that captures the élan of the song, and the surprisingly upbeat and undaunted spirit of the women. When the video was ready for distribution in the USA it ran up against a problem-- in a show of hypocrisy and prudery, some channels refused to air it on the grounds that there were actual prostitutes appearing in it. A rather ironic stance, considering the ways in which most commercial videos portray women.