The performer of the famous song “Ani de liceu”, Stela Enache, turns 75 on Friday, January 24. On this occasion, the artist gave an interview to Click! in which he discussed the new generation of artists, but also about the pension he receives after a life dedicated to the stage. However, he does not give up his great passion for music. “I worked my whole life for nothing,” says Stela Enache about the amount she receives monthly as a pension.
Stela Enache on stage. PHOTO: archive
Asked how she feels about the age she has reached today, the artist replied that she maintains her characteristic good mood and optimism. “I am turning 75 years old. The number horrifies me, but that’s the truth, what matters is actually how you feel as a person. I feel just as lively, cheerful, optimistic. I love people in general, and that gives me a boost. I can’t see the ugly, I try to bring out the best in people”she mentions in the Click.ro interview.
Stela Enache also gave some details about how she will celebrate her birthday. “I will celebrate with my loved ones, at a restaurant, it will be nice, there will be about 25 people, my close friends. Because I can’t meet the children, because one grandson is preparing for the Baccalaureate, and another is a student and has exams, we will see each other, somewhere in the spring, when it will be nice and warm. Then we will agree”.
“I’ve worked a lifetime for nothing”
Known for the song “Ani de liceu”, the soundtrack of the movie “Liceenii”, Stela Enache admits that this song brought her fame but not substantial financial gains, contrary to the expectations of many Romanians. “It’s not like that, I didn’t get rich from this play, we live in another world, if I lived in America, I wouldn’t have to worry, maybe I was a millionaire. The play is a bridge between generations. The children who come to my performances have no idea who composed it, who sang it, because others also interpret it and they do it well, I don’t mind.
Although she has an artistic career spanning more than 50 years, her pension does not reflect the work she has put in during that time. “We don’t discuss the pension, it makes no sense. But I can say that I have worked my whole life for nothing. In my time, there was no work card, some money was taken from us, why, I don’t know, there was no insurance.
I was a freelance artist, I sang a lot abroad, but I was paying all kinds of taxes, I have no idea what they were asking us. And when I went to inquire, they told me that they don’t know what money I paid.“
The artist has not finished her professional activity and says that she now works at a university in the capital. “Basically, it was labor in vain. I’m not complaining, however, I’m also a cultural adviser at a university in Bucharest, I still sing, I haven’t surrendered my weapons!”
Musical career during the communist period
Stela Enache also stepped many times on the stages abroad, where the standards were higher than in Romania at that time. “I have also performed on cruise ships and in several countries. I bought the stage dresses myself, always, I never received a dress from any fashion designer. It was an investment I made.
Abroad, you had to look a certain way. Don’t be embarrassed, I was coming from communism. What I bought from Germany, I wore in Denmark, and vice versa, so that I don’t have the same dress as some spectator in the front row!”the artist claims.
