Gypsy songs from Romania
By romica
Romica will probably remain as the greatest Romanian Gypsy singer of the 20th century. Her sensual voice whose lightness knew no obstacle, ran as clear as a mountain brook. Her glissandi between notes and quarter-tone passages of surprising precision bear witness to her exceptional musical gift (she never learnt to play music). The passion she put into interpreting lyrics established her as THE diva of Gypsy music, this kind of Romanian blues that has us totally bewitched.Romica sings about love, laments on lovers who prefer death to separation, relates the sad fate of orphans and the powerful love of parents, and suffers with the bride abandoned the day before her wedding. Her songs recount every day and every people’s lives. In rural Romania, village weddings give rise to celebrations that last for several days, and the greatest gypsy musicians are requested. It was on her way back from a concert performed at one such wedding in November 1996 that Romica met her death in a tragic car crash, just when she was starting the preparations of a concert in Paris.