Dragostea din Tei

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"Dragostea din Tei" is the most successful single by the Moldovan band O-Zone. The original version was sung by Dan Bălan, Arsenie Todiras and Radu Sarbu. The single was first released in 2003 in Romania, where the group lived and produced at that time, and in the spring of 2004 in most other European countries. It was written and produced by Dan Bălan (who wrote most of the group's songs), and was one of 2004's most successful summer hits, as well as one the best selling singles of the year across Europe.

Although O-Zone's version was the most popular across Europe, several other versions of the song have been made, most notably by the small Italian dance act Haiducii, who released the song in Europe at around about the same time. Both have accused the other of taking it without permission. "Dragostea din Tei" has also become a popular song to parody, as proven to some popularity with Gary Brolsma's "Numa Numa Dance" video. It was famously listened to and enjoyed by a group of young English students from Radley College Oxford England who were teaching in Romania at the time (Summer 2003). From here the song went on to become a major summer hit in the UK the next year.

1 Title translation
2 Track history
3 Other versions
4 External links

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Title translation

"Dragostea Din Tei" is written in Romanian and the title is not easy to translate efficiently due to the ambiguous translation of Din and lack of context for the phrase. There are several proposed translations of the title, such as Love among the linden trees and Love by the linden trees. The intended translation is possibly shown in the subtitles of the music video by O-Zone, which translates it as Love of the linden tree. It is known that linden trees have strong lyrical associations in Romanian poetry, tied to the work of the Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu. Therefore the expression may be interpreted as romantic, 'linden-type' love. Another interpretation of the title is a simple paraphrase of a popular romanian children's book, "Pupaza din tei" by Ion Creanga (in translation "The Hoopoe in the linden tree")

Of course, another very likely translation can take into account the neighbourhood "Tei" in Bucharest, the capital of Romania (in Romanian, "Cartierul Tei Madavuli"). Since it's a place very popular with college students (several dorms in the area) and youngsters in general, the connection is there ("Love in Tei" as in "Love among young people"). In Spring especially, many young pairs can be seen in the parks and streets in Tei, and "love is in the air" - even though it might be love that lasts just for a little while; the song alludes to this.

The third translation comes directly from a native Moldovan. He claims that the title uses a wordplay and simply means "Love at first sight". This translation obviously rises above the literal meanings of the words and draws on something more poetic and specific to the language and culture. Given that O-Zone is from Moldova where Romanian is spoken (along with Russian), it seems quite plausible that this interpretation is accurate. Furthermore, it provides something more universally meaningful, as the idea of love at first sight is understood more globally than the idea of love having to do with linden trees.

Image:Dragosteadintei video1.png

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Track history

In 2003 O-Zone released their second album DiscOZone in Romania. The album would include "Dragostea din Tei" although the first single from the album would be "Numai Tu". However, with it clear that "Dragostea Din Tei" was the stand-out track, it was scheduled for release.

At around about the same time Haiducii recorded their own version. O-Zone accused Haiducii of stealing the track and after suing them O-Zone won in the Romanian court of justice.

O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei" had been released in Romania 6 months earlier and had a lot of success there, but as promotion in Italy began for the cover version the group's record company began the promotional campaign across Europe.

The two versions were extremely similar. Whilst Haiducii hit number one in Italy, O-Zone prevailed in Europe thanks mostly to a release in the United Kingdom. In Germany, however, both versions hit number 1 and 2 in the charts at the same time.

The song also featured in the 2005 Disney animated movie, Chicken Little. It was used in the film, as well as being the catchy dance theme in the trailers.

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Other versions

A number of parody videos were produced that used this song by a number of different groups in Japan, most notably by several Flash movies Maiahi grafting Japanese lyrics on to the original Romanian by using whichever word sounds closest (in other words, animutations). The resulting bizarre interpretations, usually involving monkeys, ninja Picassos, and drunken cats, became an instant hit in Japan and available on the American release of DiscO-Zone [1]; it focuses on the "It's me, Picasso" lyric from the original to provide a theme of an artist who has lost his muse.

An Austrian version with German lyrics was released 2004 by the artist "Antonia aus Tirol feat Sandra S.". The music was mixed with tuba and accordion sounds, the lyrics were changed to a story about flirting in the office. A snippet in MP3 format can be heard on Antonia's official page. It was topping the Austrian charts quickly after the release.

A Eurobeat version of the song was remixed by Italian artist Sergio Dall'Ora in early 2005 for release to the Japanese market. Fusing the original song with the popular fast-tempo stylings of the Eurobeat format, the release was one of the few occasions a commercial Eurobeat song has been remixed from an already-existing European track.

A Japanese version of the song was released by comedian Maeda Ken on August 24th, 2005 under the artist name Maeken♂Trance Project (his drag alter-ego), titled "Koi no Buchiage♂Tengoku: Koi no Maiahi~Chihuahua~Banzai[2]"(恋のブチアゲ♂天国：恋のマイアヒ～チワワ～バンザイ, "Love's High Tension♂Paradise: Love's Maiahi~Chihuahua~Hurrah"), fusing the original song with part of a song by Maeken and part of the 2002 Coca-Cola commercial-related hit by DJ Bobo titled "Chihuahua".

In Brazil, the singer Latino created his own version of "Dragostea Din Tei". Called "Festa no Apê", the song's lyrics are somewhat indecent, talking about a party (held by the singer himself) that became wild. For having different lyrics, this song resembles "Dragostea Din Tei" only in rhythm and melody.

The Spanish humorist brothers Los Morancos parodied the song for their TV program as "Marica tú" ("Queer you") with audaciously gay lyrics. This version has become more popular than O-Zone's in Chile, where is mostly known as "Fiesta Fiesta, Pluma Pluma Gay"; it can even be heard requested at weddings.

A Dutch version by the Belgian trio De Feestridders (The Partyknights), which criticizes the use of speed cameras also exists. Other Dutch parodies include "Muggen Hier, Muggen Daar" (Mosquitoes Here, Mosquitoes There) by Gebroeders Ko, and "Lekker Lekker" (Nice, Nice) by Ome Henk.

An Afrikaans version of the song was done by a new artist, Nicholis Louw. The song goes by the name of "Net die een vir my", meaning "Just the one for me". The original 'nouma nouma ye' was kept. The song was also a huge hit in South Africa.

Two French versions. One by 6-9 NRJ, titled "Le Poulailler" ("The Chicken Coop"), A France-French version. [3] and the other one by Les Justiciers Masqués, titled "Viens-tu souvent ici" ("Do you come here often") which is a Quebecer version of it. [4]

A Chinese version by Jocie Kok (郭美美), a female singer from Singapore, titled "Bu Pa Bu Pa" (不怕不怕, "Not Afraid, Not Afraid") [5]. The song is about overcoming her fear of cockroaches. The start of the chorus, literally translated, forms "I'm not afraid when I see a cockroach" (看见蟑螂我不怕不怕螂)(Singlish Translation : "See cockroach I no scare no scare!"). This track was released in a single, which includes the original track and 8 different remixes. The song begun a hit in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan as well as China, launching Jocie Kok into stardom with her other single titled "Lao Shu Ai Da Mi" (老鼠爱大米, "The mouse loves the rice").

A Russian version by DJ Slon titled "Эй ди-джей!" ("Hey DJ")(broken link) about vodka.

A Hebrew version performed by participants in Festigal 2004 (a children's song competition), apparently called "Numa Yey". It retains the "ma-ya-hi" and "nu ma nu ma iei" choruses from the original, though the latter is meaningless in Hebrew, unlike in the original Romanian. (In fact, the lyrics of the chorus are self-referential in that respect, and can be translated as: "The chorus is numah numah hei, numah numah hei / I don't get a single word, OK?" [6]) There is also a music video available (Windows Media, MPEG).

Another Hebrew version, a Hasidic cover of the popular Romanian pop song. The song is available at NRG website, MP3.

Yet another Hebrew version is the techno Na Nach Nachma mix.

A Napoleon Dynamite version, dubbing the song over Napoleon's dance routine. [7]

A Panamanian reggae singer called Fragancia uses parts of the lyrics in the song "Marica Tú" in which he sings in duet with a gay man.

An animutation with English misheard lyrics. Similar to the Japanese parodied version, in that the closest sounding English word is used in place of the original Romanian lyrics. [8]

An animutation-like YTMND site with different English misheard lyrics. [9]

A clip from the 2005 animated movie Chicken Little with the title character dancing to a speeded up mix of the O-Zone version; in fact, it popularized the song in Mexico. [10]

On November 11, 2005 another Japanese version under the same title "Koi no Maiahi" was released on the compilation album of Avex record lable artists "Girl's Box ~Best Hits Compilation Winter~" (AVCD-17769) by the singers Hasebe Yu (長谷部優) from girlgroup "dream", Iwasaki Mai (岩崎舞), and Takimoto Miori (瀧本美織) both from girlgroup "SweetS". [11]

The group also did a nectar and crystal remix of this song.

Hyun-Young, a Korean model/actress/singer, released a Korean version “누나의 꿈 (Nuna-eui Ggum; Sister's Dream)”. Like the Hebrew version, the song preserves the same “ma-ia-hii” and “nu ma, nu ma iei” choruses. However, while the “ma-ia-hii” does not carry any meaning but is merely used as a rhythmic interjection, the “nu ma iei” is approximated to “누나의 (nuna-eui, often pronounced nuna-e)”, which means “Sister's.”

There are at least two Finnish versions, one sung by famous humor artist Frederik called "Kumimies" (Rubber man) and another one on a dance remix collection.

There are several other memes of "Dragostea din Tei" in circulation, making the song one of the most parodied of recent times. The song was also featured in the film Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo at the "Golden Boner" award ceremony.

The song was number two in Russia as of March 18, 2006.

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