Dan Balan: takes a trip down Memory Lane...

MORE: Italian version: Mina and Adriano Celentano: "Parole, Parole," parody

STILL MORE: the French had quite a different sensibility at the time: e.g. early 70s: Dalida and Alain Delon: "Parole, Parole"/"Words, just words..."(Dan wasn't around when these songs first came out but they remained popular in Europe for much longer than hits tend to stay popular in the U.S.) D.

EVEN MORE: from the same period: Suzy Quatro (e.g. She's in love with you; If you can't give me love) ; Bee Gees (e.g. How deep is your love?)

MORE: more recently he has acquired an interest in Electro House (techno dance music) -- collaborated with DJ Ross in Italy (for a single?); DJ Ross also did a remix for Dragostea din tei
....
some music he grew up with in today's Republic of Moldova (formerly part of the USSR): Indian Bollywood movies, dance and music (e.g. I Am A Disco Dancer, Jimmy Adja), Smokie (e.g. Living next door to Alice; parody) , Chris Norman (e.g. Midnight Lady)

Delia

P.S. similar with what was popular in Romania at the time D.

Phoenix: possibly *the* liveliest Romanian band

MORE: one of their songs (using an old Romanian incantation) arranged specifically for the Romanian movie "The Immortals"

MORE: impressive solo violin (Manfred Neumann; nickname: Mani), solo drums...(Ovidiu Lipan, nickname: Tandarica) and solo guitar

STILL MORE: they made some pretty interesting innovations, such as adding the traditional Romanian violin to customary rock instruments: Baba Novak

EVEN MORE: Pasarea Pheonix (Pheonix, the bird -- its rebirth from ashes): original version

MORE: original version, same band (better sound quality; came out during Communism)

... it's been around about as long as The Rolling Stones... Andrii Popa (one of their
early songs)

Delia

P.S. they got their inspiration from old (pre Christian) Romanian songs D.

some classic Romanian ballads

MORE: and it wasn't just ballads, there was even some hard rock... e.g. Iris:Trenul fara nas/ The free train...(alusion at the common practice -- during communism -- of not buying a train ticket and bribing the conductor instead)

sung during Communism (live versions, not always best sound quality --> people really knew the lyrics to the songs and was part of the performance,Cenaclu Flacare concerts were extremely popular)

La o cana cu vin/ If all you want to do is have a glass of wine, I won't be there...(full length)


Pustioaico: hmmm... hard to translate, it's close to the French "gamine" but I don't think terms like the English "gal" come close to it... and those who attempt to discribe the character are misleading -- in Romanian it's really and endearing term, it does denote a younger age but not in a negative way like attempted translations turn out...

Si totusi exista iubire/ In spite of all, love hasn't disappeared... (full length)

Delia