Dragostea Din Tei
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| "Dragostea Din Tei" | ||
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| Missing image Dragosteadintei_cover1.jpg | ||
| Single by O-Zone | ||
| From the album DiscOZone | ||
| Single Released | Spring 2004 | |
| Single Format | Vinyl record (12"), CD Single | |
| Recorded | 2003 | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Song Length | 3:34 | |
| Record label | Jive Records | |
| Producer | Dan Balan | |
| Chart positions | 3 (UK), 1 (Eurochart) | |
| O-Zone single chronology | ||
| "Numai Tu" 2003 | "Dragostea Din Tei" 2003/2004 | "Despre Tine" 2004 |
"Dragostea Din Tei" is currently the most successful single to date by the Moldovan band O-Zone. The single was first released in 2003 in Romania, where the group currently lives and produces, and in the spring of 2004 in most other European countries. It 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 and have been accused 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.
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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. 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.
Dragosteadintei_video1.png
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 "DDT" was the stand-out track, it was scheduled for release.
At around about the same time Haiducii recorded their own version. Both Haiducii and O-Zone accuse each other of stealing the track, however neither group has sued.
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 begun 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.
Chart performance
"Dragostea Din Tei", the version released by O-Zone in particular, was a huge success both across and outside of Europe. It topped the European charts for several weeks and made the Top 5 on the Worldwide sales chart. Its chart runs in other countries were particularly impressive, the track spending nine months in the Dutch charts and four in the tricky UK charts where foreign language artists rarely enter at all.
In the United Kingdom O-Zone were tipped for a huge number one, but only made number three due to Mario Winans' "I Don't Wanna Know" holding onto the top spot and a Euro 2004 single by 4-4-2 being released in the same week, possibly because of the limited availability of copies of the single. O-Zone would overtake both these tracks and several other big hits in its chart stay, however, which lasted until the middle of September.
In May 2005, over a year after it's original release, Dragostea Din Tei became a hit on Philippine radio.
Music videos
Dragosteadintei_video2.png
Expensive promotion was put into both versions of "Dragostea Din Tei". The O-Zone featured the three members of the group singing on an airplane, often standing on the wings.
The Haiducii featured CCTV footage of a man supposedly being watched by his girlfriend or ex-girlfriend.
Other versions
"Numa Numa Dance"
The most popular meme of "Dragostea Din Tei" is by the American teenager Gary Brolsma, mainly because of the speed in which it became known in the Internet, but also due to appearances on both CNN and VH1. For more information see the meme's own article.
The "Riot" version (Rotti vs. Haiducii)
Similar to the above "Numa Numa Dance", this version preceded Brolsma's more popular meme and featured a middle-aged man, DJ Rotti, singing the Haiducii version of the song whilst smashing a vinyl record over his head.
Other versions
Dan Balan, a member of O-Zone and producer of the internationally successful version, produced an English language version of the song with New York club DJ Lucas Prata. The English version, titled "Mai A Hee" focuses on the "It's me, Picasso" lyric from the original to provide a theme of an artist who has lost his muse.
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, marica yo" ("Queer you, queer I") with gay lyrics. This version has become more popular than O-Zone's in Chile.
A Dutch version by De Feestridders, 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.
There are several other memes of "Dragostea Din Tei" in circulation, making the song one of the most parodied of recent times.
See also
External links
- O-zone official website (http://www.o-zone.go.ro)
- Dragostea Din Tei lyrics (http://www.catteacorner.com/dragosteadintei.htm) in Romanian with English translationsde:Dragostea din Tei