Nicolae Guţă

Nicolae Guţă ([nikɒlɑːɛ ɡʊtsə]), born Nicolae Linguraru on December 3, 1967 in Petroşani, Romania, is a Romani manele and Gypsy jazz singer. He is the father of manele and ethno-pop singer Nicoleta Guţă.^[1]

Musical career

Guţă started as a singer and accordionist in the late 1980s, singing the lăutarească. He released his debut album in 1992.^[1] Two years later, he released his first mainstream hit – "De când te iubesc pe tine" (Romanian: "Since I've been loving you"), featured on his second long-play record. His first album for abroad was released in France, in 1996; while Romanian musical critics hardly had had any reaction towards Guţă's music,^[1] the journalists abroad would show their appreciation and dub his music a very modern fashion of Gypsy jazz (including electric guitars and synthesizers).^[2][3]

However, starting around 1998 Guţă developed a growing interest in manele music, a fast-paced subgenre of Balkans folk music somewhat resembling to Arab pop. Guţă had an important role in the advancement of manele (which were a fairly new musical trend at that time) and brought in influences from Western pop and hip hop music.^[1] Some of his famous manele are: "Aş renunţa", "Am greşit şi eu", "Dacă vrei", "Doar tu". In 2007, Guţă released a cover version of Hari Mata Hari's "Lejla", the third-placed entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, renaming it "Cine eşti?" (Who are you?).

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} (Romanian) Biography of Nicolae Guţă, nicolaeguta.ro (retrieved May 5, 2010)
2. ^ Keefner, Kurt. The Greatest Living Gypsy Voice, allmusic.com (retrieved May 5, 2010)
3. ^ The Greatest Living Gypsy Voice, cdroots.com (retrieved May 5, 2010)

External links

• (Romanian) nicolaeguta.ro, the singer's official website

Persondata
Name	Guta, Nicolae
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Date of birth	1967
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