The two concerts performed by the beloved rock band Coldplay from Bucharest will also remain memorable for the appearance of the manele player Babasha, the special guest of the British soloist Chris Martin. Debates on this topic continue.
Tens of thousands of people at the Coldplay concert PHOTO The truth
On the first evening, Wednesday, June 12, the audience at the National Arena booed copiously the artistic moment presented by Babasha. Televisions, press and social networks were filled with images from the concert. The world ignited. The case was turned on all sides, with specialists, sociologists, psychologists, musicians, press people or just simple parelologists. The following evening, the audience stopped booing the maneleist's artistic act.
“The world stopped booing for the simple reason that Babasha's appearance was no longer a surprise. It's a statistic, not a human's choice. If on the first evening they booed a large part of the 50,000 people, so not everyone, it is because this appearance was a surprise for them. The next night there was nothing unexpected, people knew what to expect, even if they didn't like it, let it go, maybe play a song“, said music critic and radio personality Bogdan Puriș.
Babasha's appearance was also a marketing strategy of Coldplay, one of the great rock bands of the moment.
“They, where they sing, invite stars, local names. It's a marketing gimmick. That's what they did elsewhere. Nice of them. Personally, I have a slightly more nuanced opinion on this. The world went wild because he was a manele singer. But if there was a string quartet to play us a symphonic miniature, what was it? If I go to a rock concert, I expect to listen to rock! If I want to listen to Mozart, I go to the philharmonic. Just as I don't expect a folk music band to appear in the middle of a symphonic performance. They are disjoint genres. They are not related to each other, therefore the audience is not the same at a rock concert as opposed to a pop, manele or classical music concert. It's a different audience. People, when they pay for a ticket, go to see their favorite artist. Not the preferences of the artist, from another musical area“, Bogdan Puriș also declared.
The discussion about manele can be endless, but it is clearly not so much about the music as about the social connotation.
“Tyou associate it with the social stratum that listens to the manacles or you dissociate yourself from this stratum. This is not about racism. In all the countries I have been to, I have studied this. There is a social stratification and it is also felt in social tastes. Hungarian rockers don't listen
What psychologist Mihai Copăceanu says
On the second night of the concert at the National Arena, Martin invited three young people to sing with him, after he had invited the manele singer Babasha on the first night.
Among the three young people was a survivor of the tragedy at Colectiv, from 2016.
Chris Martin asked the audience to repeat Wednesday night's boos, but louder, saying that he loves the fans even as he boos.
“It's not easy, because you have 50,000 people and you don't know how they react, and if they react badly and against you, you might miss the concert altogether, there were many who said they couldn't concentrate anymore. He has all my appreciation Chris for educating Romania. He gave a beautiful lesson, he showed that we can love and all his message yesterday and today was about love. He prepared the moment, he wasn't so sudden anymore, he informed, but he controlled the masses and the people during his speech and at the end, after he sang the same manelist, they appreciated. They proved that there is diversity and you can love diversity. I think it was a cultural, artistic and musical act”, declared psychologist Mihai Copăceanu, for Antena 1.
About what could trigger this hatred, Copăceanu said in essence, the hatred and racism are not so much towards the manele, but towards those who sing the manele, who belong to an ethnic group.
“Those who were near the scene also heard curses, really racist phrases. It is enough to have a simple explosion that influences. It was spontaneous, the people there didn't think, they didn't realize that actually while they were shouting and screaming, Chris was playing the piano and he was getting these boos. It was clearly a mass effect… It is very important as a leader to be able to control the reaction of an entire arena of 50,000 people. People expected the second evening to come and were more tolerant. Those who blasphemed yesterday could still blaspheme today. It mattered a lot that they were together on stage, with the guitar, they hugged, a management of the moment and the fact that people waited and were much more attentive, they no longer risked upsetting the artist and the band“, said Mihai Copăceanu.
