Lou Bega

German pop singer Lou Bega had the world dancing with his 1999 smash “Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of ...),” which topped charts across Europe and the UK and peaked at No. 3 in the US. Bega was nominated for a Grammy for the song. • The singer was raised in Munich by a Sicilian mother and a Ugandan father. Bega started out as a rapper before shifting gears with “Mambo No. 5,” his debut single. • Bega’s version of “Mambo No. 5” was an update of a 1949 instrumental piece by the Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado. Bega sampled the original, adding lyrics and a new beat. • The single’s success helped propel Bega’s first LP, 1999’s A Little Bit of Mambo, to No. 3 in Germany and the US and No. 1 in several other countries. It was Bega’s highest-charting album. • Bega’s second single, 1999’s “I Got a Girl,” didn’t match the success of “Mambo No. 5,” though it was a Top 20 hit in Germany, Austria, Finland, France, and Sweden. • Of the four subsequent albums Bega released, only 2001’s Ladies and Gentlemen made the German charts, peaking at No. 54. His most recent album, A Little Bit of 80’s, came out in 2013. • Bega returned in 2019 with a new single, “Scatman & Hatman,” which samples Scatman John’s 1994 single “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop).”