Alexandra Căpitănescu, the young woman who successfully represented us at Eurovision, graduated from the Faculty of Physics, and is now doing a master’s degree in Medical Physics. However, he is not the only artist from Romania who has studies in a field that we might not have thought of. And who worked hard to combine music with education. And on the international scene there are many examples. Sting, for example, has a degree in Education and even taught before becoming a singer.
Alexandra Căpitănescu: the physicist who conquered Vienna
At the age of 22, Alexandra Căpitănescu can be proud of many things: she got the best score for Romania at Eurovision, conquered the audience in Europe and finished a difficult faculty, that of Physics, at the University of Bucharest. He is now pursuing a master’s program in Medical Physics, a major that involves understanding how radiation and imaging technologies are used in diagnosis and treatment.
“I like science, I like history, I also like geography. I am passionate about world cultures and religions. I really like reading, spending time in nature with my family. My friends are very important to me. I love art in all its forms”said Alexandra in an interview for TVR Info.
After the Eurovision performance, representatives of the University of Bucharest congratulated their student:
“Although a Physics student, Alexandra wrote history at Eurovision! Alexandra Căpitănescu, you are our winner. The University of Bucharest congratulates you! You were incredible, you put on a show, you transmitted, energy, emotion, you conquered the audience and brought Romania a historic result: we conquered the podium! We can only congratulate you, on behalf of a community that brings, in the same place, #home, over 40,000 hearts beating in unison, students, teachers, researchers and administrative staff”, they wrote in a Facebook post.
Dan Bittman and Alex Velea are, at heart, engineers
Although one might not associate him with anything other than music due to his unique vocal timbre, Dan Bittman is, at heart, an engineer. The lead singer of the band Holograf studied at the Faculty of Hydrotechnics, within the Polytechnic.
The artist said that he initially wanted to become an architect, but he failed the exam, so he went to Hydrotechnics. He never practiced in the field, because he had another path: in music.
And Alex Velea also has an engineering degree. But in another field.
“I finished Engineering and Environmental Protection in Industry. But this plan B was just to keep mine quiet. In my head there was only the stage and to come to Bucharest to launch myself”, the singer told in a podcast.
Smiley finished the ASE
His friend Smiley doesn’t have a degree in Music either. Juror from The voice of Romania graduated from the Faculty of Commerce, within the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies. Before college, however, he studied music at the Popular Art School, the classical guitar department.
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Smiley seems to have managed to combine what he studied in high school with what he attended in college very well. He is not only an acclaimed singer, but also has a successful business in the music industry: the production house HaHaHa Production.
Mihai Trăistariu, the mathematician with five octaves
And if Alexandra Căpitănescu is a physicist, another artist who brought success to Romania at Eurovision is a mathematician. Mihai Trăistariu graduated from the Faculty of Computer Science at the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași. And before that he was an Olympian in this matter, as he told in numerous interviews. And he got the Baccalaureate with 10 in Mathematics. A solid academic track, seemingly unrelated to the five-octave voice.
But then again, even though he pursued a career in music, college helped him with math. The singer has several apartments by the sea, which he rents out and which bring him a nice income.
Sting, the primary school teacher from Newcastle
Before becoming the voice of The Police and one of the most recognizable musicians on the planet, Gordon Sumner – known to the world as Sting – graduated from a teacher training college in Newcastle and taught a primary school for several years. He taught the children English and Music, while in the evenings he played with local jazz bands. Four years later, however, he moved to London and founded The Police. What is left of the didactic period? Probably the ability to communicate clearly and capture the attention of the audience.
Chris Martin, student of Latin and Greek
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has graduated University College London (UCL) with a degree in Classical Languages—Latin and Greek. An academic path that, at first glance, seems totally detached from the world of hits that he released later.
Alexandra Căpitănescu, received with applause and flowers after returning from Eurovision: “We are the winners of hearts and I think that is much more important than some grades”
But the study of classical languages forms a certain kind of thinking, based on rigor, attention to form and the awareness that every word has weight. All this helped him in that musical. And at UCL he met Jonny Buckland, the band’s future guitarist, with whom he laid the foundations of what would become one of the most successful projects in British rock. The Faculty of Classical Languages did not produce a philologist, but it produced, indirectly, Coldplay.
Brian May, the guitarist with a doctorate “in the stars”
The case of Brian May, the guitarist of the band Queen, exceeds all expectations. May earned her BA in Physics from Imperial College London in the ’70s, exactly when Queen was becoming one of the biggest phenomena of the world scene.
But the story did not stop there. After a break of three decades, he returned to Imperial College to complete his PhD in Astrophysics, which he obtained in 2007. His thesis – on the movement of interplanetary dust in the solar system – was enthusiastically received in the academic world. Since then, May has collaborated with NASA, co-authored books popularizing astronomy, and actively supported science education.
