"The first time I played it to friends they all went, like, 'Wow, this is something else, something new, never heard it,'" recalls Bega. "So this was the first response. I've never had a negative response."
But for a guy who has become a modern-day mambo king, the road there has been a tad unorthodox. He was born in Germany to a Ugandan father and Sicilian mother; growing up, he listened to "a lot of music from all fields, from reggae to salsa to classical music, very open-minded music." In the early '90s, he moved to Miami for 18 months for "adventure," where, under the influence of Miami Vice, he developed a taste for the white suits that he now almost exclusively wears. "More the cheap ones, the knits," he says of the suits he wore back then.
Bega spent time in Uganda, as well, before settling back in Germany to finish school and think about his future. He eventually worked in a small studio with a guy named Zippy, who helped flesh out the Bega sound. Yet Bega didn't consider himself a performer; he actually thought of himself a composer for other artists.
But that changed once he had "Mambo #5" in hand.
"The singing got to me when I wrote 'Mambo #5' and the other songs on the album, and it was so much fun and so much a part of me that I made the decision to stand onstage myself, which I never really wanted to," explains Bega.
He did have serious thoughts about going to college. But the tune in his head took over.
"I had the melody in my head and I couldn't get it out of my head," admits Bega. "It was so positive, it was really kicking ass. So I had to come up with the lyrics. And it got to me when I was in Munich last year and a bunch of beautiful women passed by, and somehow it just got to me and there was a sudden snap."
Lest he be considered a womanizer, Bega insists the song and its catalog of ladies is not a case of sexual braggadocio. "I'm just trying to enjoy my life while I'm young," he pauses. "And good-looking." He laughs. "I'm just trying to have fun. The message of the song is less the playboy thing. It is more enjoying the beautiful things that God gave us. I don't know about my second record, but my first record is dedicated to women."
But the woman who is most taken with Bega's accomplishments is his mother. "She's like the biggest fan and she checks the Internet to see wherever I am," says Bega. "She keeps calling me, telling me, 'You're No. 1 here, No. 1 there, you're No. 2 in Bangkok...'"
Bega continues to write and hopes to get back to his first love, the recording studio, as soon as he can. However, for now, promotional tours and world dominance are top priorities. He explains: "Still 'Mambo #5' is not known in all the countries. It's in 80% maybe, but not known in some countries in Asia, so that's where I'm going next."
He intends to teach the world, if not to sing, then to mambo.
