"Dragostea din Tei" is the most successful single by the Moldovan band O-Zone. 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 BДѓlan (who wrote most of the group 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.

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.

This 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 the 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.

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. 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 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.

Numa Numa dance

"Numa Numa" is the most popular internet meme based on "Dragostea din Tei", created by the American teenager Gary Brolsma. It spread over the Internet with great speed, and this phenomenon was commented on CNN and VH1, and by The New York Times. Since then a large number of copycat videos appeared. Some of these can be seen here [1].

Other versions

• A number of parody videos were produces that used this song by a number of different groups in Japan, most notably by several Flash movies Maiyahi attempting to graft 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 Japanese internet fad covered by a number of mainstream television programs, prompting the single to be domestically re-released under the parody's name "Maiyahi." It is still one of the top 5 most-downloaded cell phone ring tones in the country.

• 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.

• The "Remixed" version with released by DJ Crazy Frog.

• Dan Balan, a member of O-Zone and writer/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 "Ma Ya Hi" and available on the American release of DiscO-Zone [2], 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 Maekenв™‚Trance Project (his drag alter-ego), titled "Koi no Puchiageв™‚Tengoku~Dragostea Din Tei (Koi no Maiahi)~Chihuahua~Banzai"("Love's High Tensionв™‚Paradise~Dragostea Din Tei (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 Song".

• In Brazil, the singer Latino created his own version of "Dragostea Din Tei". Called "Festa no ApГЄ", 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 tГє" ("Queer you") with gay lyrics. This version has become more popular than O-Zone's in Chile, where is mostly known as "Fiesta Fiesta, Pluma Pluma Gay"

• 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.

• A French version by 6-9 NRJ, titled "Le Poulailler" ("The Chicken Coop"). [3]

• A Chinese version by Jocie Guo Mei Mei; a female singer from Singapore, titled "Bu Pa Bu Pa" ("Not Afraid, Not Afraid"). Official web site http://www.guomeimei.com. The lyrics have been changed into "I'm not afraid when I see a cockroach," in Mandarin. This track was released in a CD, which includes the same track, with the same lyrics, in different tunes. From the normal tune, to a rock, and et cetra.

• A Russian version by DJ Slon titled "Р­Р№ РґРё-джей!" ("Hey DJ") about vodka.

• A Hebrew version performed by participants in Festigal 2004 (a chidren'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?" [4]) There is also a music video available (Windows Media, MPEG).

• A Napoleon Dynamite version, dubbing the song over Napoleon's dance routine. [5]

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

• An animutation with English misheard lyrics. [6]

• An animutation-like YTMND site with different 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. [7]

• A clip from the 2005 animated movie Chicken Little with the title character dancing to the O-Zone version.[8]

• The AIM Screenname Dragostee Din Ti of a teenage expert on both the song and the famous dance.

There are several other memes of "Dragostea din Tei" in circulation, making the song one of the most parodied of recent times.

External links

• O-zone official website
• Dragostea Din Tei lyrics in Romanian with English translations
• Lyrics in many different languages including English.
• Lego Numa
• American Idlede:Dragostea din Tei

ko:드라고스테아 � 테이 mo:Драгостя Дин Тей ja:恋のマイアヒ ro:Dragostea din tei th:ดาร์โกรสยาดินเต้ zh:Dragostea Din Tei