You may or may not have heard of the Euro pop band O-Zone, but their success is an amazing story. The group was rag tag at best, but they found each other and formed the band O-Zone, then within only a few years they wrote a produced one of the most popular dance songs in Europe to date, and spawned a viral video that reached enormous popularity online. Although they never really hit it big in the Untied States their fan base in the US is quite large despite that fact.
O-Zone as a band was formed in 1999 by a Dan Balan in the small almost unknown country of Moldova. The band consisted of three members; Dan Balan was the founder, and song writer and also the “leader” or front man for the group. The other two members were Radu Alexei Sarbu and Arsenie Todiras. In 20045 the band split up to pursue their own solo careers. Dan Balan works with a rock group baring his last name, Radu Sarbu is working on a tour of Eastern Europe and Arsenie Todiras has launched a career in Germany.
The band had a few major hits in their native country of Moldova, and soon branched out in the neighboring country of Romania. It was after these first few years of success that their careers really took off, Dan Balan had composed an amazing song known as Dragostea din tei or by its more popular name Numa Numa.
The song reached number one in many different European countries and sold over 12 million copies world wide, 1 million in Japan alone. The song has a catchy beat with some great techno mixed in. The entire song is upbeat and light, and can be easy to learn and sing along with, wither in Romanian or English. This song just has all the right elements of a hit, but maybe not a classic.
Despite its popularity in Europe, the song Numa Numa never really gained any kind of popularity in the United States. Dan Balan preformed the song on the New York Today show along with Lucas Prata under the title “Ma Ya Hi” After this performance the song gained some popularity, and a solid fan base, but nothing wide spread. “Numa Numa” peaked on American billboards at number 72, however on over 100,000 download site across the net the song was a gold hit.
The songs popularity was enhanced because of an interesting video of a man named Gary Brolsma lip syncing the catchy tune and dancing to the beat. Gary is a college grad student who made a tape of himself using the catchy song in the background as he sang and danced. Unwittingly this became a viral video receiving more then 14 million views on the newgrounds site. Gary was at first uncomfortable with this kind of fame but son accepted his popularity and made appearances on many television shows like VH1’s best week ever and even on an ABC sponsored program.
The song Numa Numa, Ma Ya Hi, or Dragoste din tei whatever you may call it is a cultural phenomenon, and a successful on at that. The song went to number 1 in 32 different countries, and number 3 in the UK. It has been covered by over 100 different artist in 12 different languages and spoofed countless times, and has thrilled hundreds of millions of people world wide. The band O-zone may have disbanded, but the memory and legacy of the catchy Euro-Pop beats they introduced us to will live on in music history.
