Gabriel Cotabiță totally identified with the famous Mamaia Festival, emblematic of Romanian music. He was, moreover, the star of that event, performing various roles, from performer to festival director.
Gabriel Cotabita on stage in Mamaia PHOTO Adevărul
The artist Gabriel Cotabiță died at the age of 69, after a vascular accident. The announcement was made by the composer Ionel Tudor. The great artist left many memories and the image of a male symbol of Romanian light music. Most of the memories related to Gabriel Cotabiță are related to the Mamaia Festival, a symbolic manifestation of Romanian music, the place where many Romanian stars were launched. In fact, as he testified in various interviews, his entire career and musical life was linked to the Mamaia Festival, and he experienced most of his professional joys on the stage by the sea.
“If I hadn’t sung at Mamaia, my whole career would have been completely different”
Gabriel Cotabiță became known to the Romanian public on the Mamaia stage in 1986. Until that moment he was not famous. He was a young man passionate about rock music and had connections with various bands of the time. He had also sung with Holograph. As Gabi Cotabiță also testified in an interview for “Adevărul”, he would have stayed to sing in bars if an opportunity related to the Mamaia Festival had not arisen. It happened in 1986. Cotabiță, for unknown reasons, had missed a tour with Holograf, in the USSR, due to a ban by the Romanian state. At that moment, the composer Ionel Tudor proposed to Gabi Cotabiță to perform a piece composed by him at the Mamaia Festival.
“I accepted on the spot. What was I to do? Should I stay in Craiova and sing in pubs? We listened to the song and decided to go with it to Mamaia. I was completely unknown and didn’t get any awards because I wasn’t on the show. It was in 1986 when I went on the stage of the Festival for the first time”, declared Cotabita for Adevărul Live, in 2023. He was unknown to the public in Mamaia, but once he performed the song “The Call of the Earth”, his first hit in Mamaia, Gabriel Cotabiță was never forgotten.No one applauded me when I entered. I performed the song “Calling the Earth”. At the end there was a moment of silence, then the audience applauded wildly. It was a great success. Shortly after the performance, there was the earthquake of August 1986. People laughed at me for singing the earth shook”, add this one for Live Truth. Since that edition of the Mamaia Festival, Gabriel Cotabiță has become a real star. He was recognized by everyone and managed to release his own solo album.
“If I hadn’t played in Mamaia, my whole journey would have been completely different and in a different direction. I wouldn’t have been able to become so famous. For a long time, I did not realize the impact I had on the stage in Mamaia. We understood everything in one evening, at home, in Craiova, and we were playing with the band Redivivus in a restaurant. We play only foreign music. Customers used to ask for parts with dedication. One evening, a guy came to me, handed me 100 lei and asked me to sing “Blue Night” for him. Our bassist told him that we don’t play Romanian music. And that guy replied that the song is no longer just a Romanian song. This is Gabriel Cotabita. Every night, customers asked for Blue Night and Public Radio broadcast it in the morning, at noon and in the evening. That’s when I realized what Mamaia meant to me.” said Cotabita.
Gabriel Cotabita identified himself with the Mamaia Festival
From 1986 until 2001, Gabriel Cotabiță was identified with the Mamaia Festival. He remained faithful to that iconic musical event that actually paved the way for his career. In Mamaia he was a performer, composer, presenter and even director of the festival twice. He was one of the biggest stars of the festival, releasing more than 20 hits and winning numerous awards. For the first time, he took 1st place and the grand prize of the Mamaia Festival in 1990 with “Ave Maria” by Cornel Fugaru. Then, in 1992, the big prize with “Leave me a star in the sky”. The performance was repeated in the editions of 1993, 1995, but also in 1998. In 1991, Gabriel Cotabiță had the largest Fun Club in Romania. The first grand prize obtained in Mamaia remained in the soul of Gabriel Cotabita. As well as the song “Ave Maria”.
“I didn’t know how the dancers thought about the staging. I really didn’t know anything. But when I saw, right then, what they did, I got chills. But the final moment when I kneel on the stage was undirected. That’s what I felt like doing. And it was hard for me to close my eyes too, because…I was crying. For a long time, when I performed “Avea Maria”, I, at the end, realized that I was crying. stated, last year, at Adevărul Live, Gabriel Cotabiță. The artist testified, on the same occasion, that music must be experienced in order to reach the soul of the listener.“In this job, if you don’t believe in and love what you do, don’t go on stage. When I was on stage, I did everything with sincerity and above all, I believed in the texts we were singing”, added Gabriel Cotabita.
