We head to Spain for today's Global Hit. Barcelona-based Macaco has been a hit for several years now. It's the brainchild of a guy named Dani Carbonell. But for performance purposes, he goes simply by Dani, or Dani Macaco. The World's Marco Werman has more.

Dani Macaco

So you haven't heard of Macaco? If you've not seen his videos on TV or heard his music on the radio, don't worry. Neither did many of Macaco's fellow Spaniards. Dani Macaco tells me the story of American folk-rocker Ben Harper. Like Macaco, it wasn't music industry hype that introduced Harper to his fans. It was word of mouth.

“He was asking in one concert, how many people knows me by the radio, and a few people say "hey, I know you." "how many people know me by the videos," and some people say "I know you, I know you." and then at the end he say, "HOw many people knows me because another friend gave to him my music," and everybody say "YEEEEAH!" This is the way Macaco has been growing.”

Dani Macaco

Word-of-mouth, and, yes, it also helps when you've got a few toe-tapping tunes like the first single from Macaco's best selling CD "Ingravitto." Sideral, this track, pulls together pop muscle and Spanish tradition. Dani Macaco has a voice that recalls the raspiness of Bob Marley.

Macaco's lyrics often focus on the human connections between people around the world. His nine-piece band -- also called Macaco -- is a UN of players, featuring musicians from not just Spain, but also Cameroon, Portugal, Argentina and Brazil.

After touring countries as diverse as Brazil and Japan, Dani is bringing Macaco to America. He's hoping his multi-cultural music will win fans over here too.

“In US there's a lot of good musical culture, you know. It's very, very strong. There's a lot of people also from different countries you know. There's great cities with a lot of influence.”

Macaco has already made one important connection with the states. National Geographic gave Macaco the rights to its vast film archive for the video to his song Mama Tierra. Lush images of the planet pop up throughout the video. The kernel of what Macaco is saying in Mama Tierra amounts to an environmental bumpersticker along the lines of "Be kind to your mother earth."

“I didn't want it to be, how you say in English, "Barocco," I didn't want to be complicated, you know what I mean? I wanted it to be simple, that a little kid could understand you know?”

“I compare the love that you have and I have and everybody have to his people, to their mom, to their dad, to their family. And when someone attacks one of your people, very quickly you defends, no? It's like something animal, you know? And I compare that with the defense that I think we have to do with the earth, like being your mom, you know.”

Macaco helped get the message out by recruiting various celebrities in Spain to lip-synch a few lines from Mama Tierra in the video. Appearing in that video last year became a status symbol in Spain. It's a sign that he's made it. Macaco's career will start a new chapter in his career next weekend. Starting Friday, Macaco will do three successive evenings of shows in Washington, New York and Miami.

For The World, I'm Marco Werman.