Stevoo Hide and Luan Luan write a birthday song for Manu Chao and it goes viral
Stevoo Hide and Luan Luan perform Ciao Manu Chao live, filmed by nothing2hidevideo
Stevoo Hide and Luan Luan write a Manu Chao birthday song that goes viral on the solstice
Two Brighton-based musicians have written a birthday song for one of the most influential figures in modern world music, released it on the exact day he turned 65, and watched it take off.
The song is called Ciao Manu Chao, a tribute to French-Spanish singer-songwriter Manu Chao, written and performed by Stevoo Hide with Luan Luan on saxophone. It dropped on 21 June, Manu Chao's birthday and the summer solstice, and the live take has already passed 200,000 views.
The video first landed on Instagram, shared across only.in.brighton, and the response has been immediate, with hundreds of comments and a string of musicians weighing in, including verified artist Henry Ruggeri, who has more than 160,000 followers of his own.
Written in two hours, straight from the heart
For Stevoo Hide, Ciao Manu Chao is deeply personal. The Brighton-based artist, who is solo and self-describes as a gentle rebel, has carried Manu Chao's music with them for most of their life and wanted to give something back.
"So...I'm not sure how to describe this feeling about Manu but I know for certain that the world wouldn't be the same without his presence here as a human being and as a musical artist," Stevoo said.
"In Manu's music I've always felt his true spiritual energy in connection to nature... he's a gentle rebel and I am too."
The release date was no accident. Stevoo and Manu Chao share a star sign, both being Cancer, and once Stevoo found out Manu Chao was born on the solstice, releasing on that day made complete sense.
"Answering to why release 'Ciao Manu Chao' on the solstice it's because it's his birthday!!! I've known we both share the same zodiac sign 'cancer' and when I've seen he was born on the Solstice of Summer, all made sense!" Stevoo said.
The song came together at speed, and it is the first one Stevoo has ever written in Spanish.
"This song came straight from my heart in no time, without hesitating... in two hours I had it all (also it's the first song ever I write in Spanish!). He's a huge inspiration which goes far beyond music and I'd be honoured if he listened to it," Stevoo said.
Filmed live in a colourful Brighton living room
The live take was filmed on Saturday 20 June by nothing2hidevideo, the day before release, with Luan Luan on alto sax. The idea came together in the most Brighton way possible, at home, against a tight deadline.
"One day, I came back home and Stevoo was there, writing something (as per usual). They told me they wrote a song for Manu Chao and that it would be sick to have me play sax in it! So I, of course said yes, let's do it," Luan Luan said.
"We had a deadline, 21st of June (Manu Chao's birthday), so we had to have everything finished and rehearsed before then."
The plan had been to film outside. The British summer had other ideas.
"The live take is filmed in our colourful, funky living room. Initially, we wanted to film it outdoors... but hey! this is England and the weather was definitely not on our side," Luan Luan said.
Who is Manu Chao
For anyone who has not come across him, Manu Chao carries enormous weight far beyond Brighton. He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic and several other languages, often mixing them inside a single song, and first built his name with the band Mano Negra, which he founded in 1987 with his brother and his cousin Santiago Casariego.
After the band split in the mid-1990s, he spent years drifting around South and Central America with his guitar and a four-track, recording as he went. Those songs became Clandestino in 1998, a sleeper hit that found its place in the Latin alternative scene and went on to sell millions of copies, carrying a strong social and political conscience all the way through. That conscience is exactly what pulled Stevoo towards him as a child.
From a 90s stereo to a song of their own
Manu Chao's music reached Stevoo early, through an aunt who had been a fan since her teens, and it left a mark that has lasted decades.
"I was actually 8 or 9 the first time I heard 'Clandestino'... just being absorbed by the tone and intensity of his voice and those guitars that made you move like you're made of water," Stevoo said.
From there the young listener went digging through the back catalogue, including Mano Negra. Years on, that early obsession has come full circle in a song written in Manu Chao's honour and addressed to him directly, with Stevoo writing online that they hoped their paths might cross one day "por otra vuelta alrededor del Sol", around another lap of the sun.
Stevoo Hide, a gentle rebel from Italy to Brighton
Stevoo Hide grew up on grunge and punk in a small town in Italy before moving to the UK. For years they played in a Brighton band that split a couple of years ago, and the solo project has grown out of that.
"Brighton is a city full of all kind of arts and people from all over the world... I come from a small town in Italy and since I moved here I feel reborn," Stevoo said.
The first solo releases arrived this year, including Too Radical, We Forget and What Am I Here For, with an EP mastered at one of the most famous studios in the world.
"I had the honour to have my EP mastered at 'Abbey Road Studios' in 2025," Stevoo said.
The music leans hard into activism, and Stevoo, who is openly anti-AI, sees that as the whole point of making it at all.
"That's the point of music and all art in general, to break the rules of oppression and find the colours of liberation, love and unity behind it, to finally understand that we are all connected!" Stevoo said.
You can find Stevoo Hide on stevoohide.com and across Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music, often busking around town, and the full video of Ciao Manu Chao lands this Friday on Stevoo Hide's YouTube channel.
Luan Luan, from Madrid to Brighton with a saxophone
Luan Luan is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose main instrument is guitar, with alto sax close behind.
"I'm a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in my project Luan Luan. My main instrument is guitar, but I started playing alto sax a couple of years ago and it's become my second voice," Luan Luan said.
The journey started young and ended up on the south coast.
"I started playing guitar at 12 back in my hometown Madrid (Spain), and ended up moving to Brighton at 18 to make music, play music and live music every day!" Luan Luan said.
On Ciao Manu Chao the sax is there to lift the vocal rather than fight it. "I like to bring warmth with my saxophone... colourful, simple, detailed melodies that intertwine and support the main melody from the vocals," Luan Luan said.
Luan Luan's own EP, IRIDESCENT, is out everywhere this month.
A Brighton duo that works best together
Stevoo and Luan Luan met in Brighton and have been playing together seriously for about a year and a half, busking and performing around the city as a pair.
"Stevoo and I have been playing together... for about a year and a half... It's much more fun when we're together, we make a strong team," Luan Luan said.
Each makes very different music alone, which is part of why the collaboration clicks. For now Ciao Manu Chao lives on Instagram, with the full video arriving this Friday on Stevoo Hide's YouTube channel. If Manu Chao himself ever hears it, that would be the dream, and as Stevoo put it, an honour.
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