Margareta Pâslaru, the famous 80-year-old artist from Romania, defended Babasha, the singer who was booed for minutes because of the performance he had last Wednesday at the ColdPlay concert in the Capital.
Margareta Pâlsaru defends Babasha Photo: Facebook
The artist nicknamed “Pasărea Măiastra” of Romanian hits, with a career in music spanning over 65 years, sent some words of encouragement for the 22-year-old who caused a monster scandal in the world of Romanian music.
““Variety” shows were called in the 60s, something different, 2-3 minutes for everyone's taste. Speaking of which, in a three-hour show, it's not bad. Great publicity…“, is the message published by Margareta Pâslaru, on her personal Facebook page.
Thus, according to the well-known artist, Babasha's artistic intervention during the Coldplay concert was something totally normal, and it fit perfectly in the artistic moment that took place on both Wednesday and Thursday at the National Arena.
The manele performer also brought Romania to the attention of the international media, opening the discussion of the situation related to racism, which is increasingly present in Romania.
Euronews and The Independent, international publications that covered the event, state that “the booing of the Roma singer at the Coldplay show in Bucharest reignites the debate about racism in Romania”, and that “the centuries-old musical genre raises the specters of racism”.
The publication writes that manele combines folk music with modern electronic sounds, and compares them to turbofolk, popular in neighboring Serbia, Greek skiladiko or Bulgarian chalga. At the same time, he adds that unlike turbofolk, which became famous only in the 1990s, maneles – performed mostly by Roma artists – have a much longer history and are deeply rooted in the traditions of the Roma community, with classic maneles dating from the end the 18th century, when they were brought to Romania by the Roma from Istanbul.
These publications state that there are critics who still deride this musical genre to this day for its language and trite lyrics. At the same time, he mentions that they have gone so far that some cities in Romania have banned handcuffs in public spaces, noting that in March 2010, the Cluj city hall forbade taxi drivers to listen to sex while on duty, while the same rule was also applied in Galati against its public transport operators in May of the same year.
Experts would attribute the resistance to the same reasons behind the pushback against rap or reggaeton — genres now seen as mainstream but launched by underprivileged groups.
