What Is Lou Bega's Net Worth?
Lou Bega is a German mambo musician who has a net worth of $3 million. Lou Bega is best known for the Grammy-nominated single "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of…)," which he remade in 1999 from a 1949 instrumental by Perez Prado. "Mambo No. 5" topped the charts in more than 20 countries and was certified Platinum or higher in 11 countries.
Bega has released the studio albums "A Little Bit of Mambo" (1999), "Ladies and Gentlemen" (2001), "Lounatic" (2005), "Free Again" (2010), "A Little Bit of 80s" (2013), and "90s Cruiser"(2021), and "A Little Bit of Mambo" reached #1 in Austria, Canada, Finland, and Switzerland and was certified 5× Platinum in Canada and 3× Platinum in the U.S. Lou also performed the theme song for the animated series "Brandy & Mr. Whiskers," which aired on the Disney Channel from 2004 to 2006. He made a music video for "Disney Mambo No. 5," in which he performed in front of Disney clips and replaced the women's names from the original "Mambo No. 5" with the names of Disney characters.
Early Life
Lou Bega was born David Lubega Balemezi on April 13, 1975, in Munich, West Germany. He is the son of a Ugandan father (Charles) and an Italian mother (Nicole), and he has two siblings, Robert and Sandra. In 1972, Charles moved to West Germany to attend the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he studied biology. Until the age of 6, Lou spent most of his time in Italy with Nicole, then they lived in Munich permanently. During Bega's teenage years, he visited Miami, Florida, which inspired "Mambo No. 5." According to the website AllMusic, "He sang and danced as a child, listened to R&B and reggae as a teenager, and was in a rap group, but a trip to Miami as an 18-year-old acquainted him with the songs of the mambo kings of the '30s and '40s. Fascinated by mambo's sounds and stylish fashions, Bega returned to Germany and created his own version of the music." Lou also spent six months living in Uganda.
Career
When Bega was 13 years old, he formed a hip-hop group with two of his friends, and they released a CD in 1990. After spending some time in Miami, Lou returned to Munich and signed a record deal with Lautstark. He released his debut single, "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of…)," in April 1999, and it was a massive hit, reaching #1 in more than 20 countries. The single was certified Diamond in France, 4× Platinum in Australia, and 3× Platinum in Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, and Sweden. Bega's first album, "A Little Bit of Mambo," was released in July 1999, and it reached #1 in four countries and peaked at #3 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. The album was certified Platinum or higher in five countries, and it featured three other singles besides "Mambo No. 5": "I Got a Girl," "Tricky, Tricky," and "Mambo Mambo." "I Got a Girl" was a top 10 hit in Belgium, Finland, and France and went Gold in Sweden, and "Mambo Mambo" was certified Silver in France, where it reached #11 on the singles chart. Next, Lou released the 2001 album "Ladies and Gentlemen," which reached #23 in Switzerland, #31 in Austria, #54 in Germany, and #109 in France. The single "Gentleman" reached #16 in Austria, #30 in Poland, and #35 in Germany.
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Next, Bega released the albums "Lounatic" (2005), "Free Again" (2010), and the cover album "A Little Bit of 80s" (2013), and "Free Again" reached #78 in Switzerland. That album included the singles "Sweet Like Cola" and "Boyfriend," which peaked at #38 and #71, respectively, in Germany. In 2021, Lou released his sixth studio album, "90s Cruiser," and it reached #91 in Germany. He has also released the compilation albums "King of Mambo (2002), "Mambo Mambo – The Best of Lou Bega (2004), "Beautiful World – A Little Collection of Lou Bega's Best" (2013), and "Best of – Seine größten Hits" (2016). In September 2023, Stephen King, "The Master of Horror," spoke to "Rolling Stone" magazine about his love for "Mambo No. 5," stating, "My wife threatened to divorce me. I played that a lot. I had the dance mix. I loved those extended play things and I played both sides of it. And one of them was just total instrumental." King added, "And I played that thing until my wife just said, 'One more time, and I'm going to f—— leave you.'"
Personal Life
In 2019, TV 2 Denmark interviewed Lou for its "Guds bedste børn" documentary series, and he spoke about his religion. Bega stated that when he was staying in a hotel on the Maldives during a storm, he began reading a Bible he found in his room and thought it was captivating. When he returned to Germany, he looked into getting baptized but thought the wait times were too long. Lou subsequently contacted The Last Reformation, a Danish religious movement, after coming across their YouTube videos, and they baptized him. Bega appeared in the 2018 documentary "The Last Reformation: The Life," and he has done missionary work for the movement.
Awards and Nominations
In 2000, "Mambo No. 5" earned Bega a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and an NRJ Music Award for International Song of the Year. In 2001, he won World Music Awards for World's Best Selling New Male Artist and World's Best Selling German Artist.
