O-Zone

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O-Zone was a Moldovan^[1] pop music trio that gained global popularity for their song "Dragostea din tei." Its members were Dan Bălan, Radu Sîrbu, and Arsenie "Arsenium" Todiraş.

Music career

Originally a duo of Dan Bălan and Petru Jelihovschi, O-Zone was formed in 1999. They released their first album, Dar, unde eşti..., in 2000, and were a major success in Romania. However, Jelihovschi had not intended to make music his career, so he split from Bălan. Undaunted, Bălan held open auditions for new band members. At one such audition, he met Arsenie "Arsenium" Todiraş, who eventually won over the initially skeptical Bălan with his version of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender." Bălan and Arsenium were going to proceed as a duo until Bălan received a call from Radu Sîrbu, who wanted a chance to audition for the group, despite missing the auditions the first time around. Bălan agreed, and after a successful audition by Sîrbu, O-Zone officially became a trio.

O-Zone is best known for their hit single "Dragostea din tei," a notable summer hit from the album DiscO-Zone. "Dragostea din tei" reached Number One on the singles charts of many European countries in 2003 and 2004, and was Number Three in the United Kingdom. Another single called "Despre tine" from the same album had similar success across Europe.

In contrast to their multi-platinum status in Europe, O-Zone never entered the charts in the United States. The viral video Numa Numa Dance helped to slightly boost awareness of "Dragostea din tei" in the United States, but while the song received moderate to major airplay, most Americans knew it simply as "Numa Numa" and never knew the name of the original song or the group that performed it. "Dragostea din tei" was sampled in the song "Live Your Life" by T.I. and Rihanna, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in late 2008.

In January 2005, the trio split, though they reunited briefly to tour Japan, where "Dragostea din tei" was very popular.

Rise to success

O-Zone became an instant hit band in Romania with their melodious upbeat song "Despre tine" ("About you"). Their second hit, which brought them worldwide attention, was "Dragostea din tei" ("The love from/within the tilia", "tei" meaning "tilia", a tree consecrated in Mihai Eminescu poetry work as the tree of love thanks to its mystical scent, heart-shaped leaves and imposing and protecting branches).

The very catchy chorus made it a hit in Italy where Romanians air-played it and where it was released as a cover version by Romanian singer Haiducii.

The worldwide success of the song was largely made possible by the Internet. American teenager Gary Brolsma made a video that became very popular on YouTube and other video sharing sites that showed him dancing, acting and behaving bizarrely while lip-syncing to the song, which went on to become a popular Internet meme. Instead of using the actual title of the song "Dragostea din tei," his video was titled "Numa Numa" and that title is what the song would become known by to many fans, especially in America. Three American students, who made an elaborate video to the song, were even said to have inspired the official O-Zone video. The worldwide appeal of the song received much attention from the Romanian press, including a news show covering the story and trying to explain with a psychologist's help the "catchiness" of the song.^{[citation needed]}

Discography

Albums

Dar, unde eşti (1999)
Number 1 (2002)
DiscO-Zone (2004)

Singles

"Numai tu" (2002)
"Despre tine" (2002)
"Dragostea din tei" (2004)
"Despre tine" (2004) (Re-release)

External links

References

^ ^a ^b "O-zone, a successful band". Retrieved 2009-10-12.

[artline-1] "O-zone, a successful band". Retrieved 2009-10-12.

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