Do put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Groza
Tom Wilson 21.05.04

Britney Spears: "I've been into a lot of Indian
spiritual religions."
Newsweek: "Might Hinduism be one of them?"
Britney Spears: "What's that? Is it like Kaballah?"

The worrying phenomena of music industry starlets to start life younger and younger has been given an amusingly apt name in Britain - Paedo-Pop . From groups like the UK 's 'S-Club Juniors' (with an average age of twelve) to Romania 's very own 'Bambi', Paedo-pop is a global phenomena. However, though child stars might make good commercial sense, they rarely make the transition into well-adjusted adults.

As if Michael Jackson weren't example enough of a child performer gone badly wrong, just take a look at Britney Spears. The singer who at just seventeen became the fastest selling teen artist in chart history is, according to insider rumors, hurtling towards a full-blown breakdown. She's cancelled tours, is reportedly unable to give a press-conference without breaking out in hysterics, and the video for her brand-new single, 'Everytime' appears to depict her death in a bathtub. Which begs the question, just how messed up is Britney going to be in ten years time? Since ultra-Christian Britney's already pre-empted the 'spiritual awakening' avenue, the clever money's on a deepening spiral of substance addiction and rehabilitation.

The likelihood of her continuing a lifetime career in a world as unforgivingly vicious as the music industry looks slim. It certainly stands today's generation of adolescent performers in contrast to a certain former child star from right here in Romania .

Loredana Groza began her singing career when she was 14. Like many before me, I've previously referred to her as being 'The Romanian Madonna'. It's now time to make amends. Loredana is nothing like Madonna - for the simple reason that Madonna couldn't sing if her botox-extended life depended on it. That was always part of the charm of the girl-next-door who ran away to New York City with only thirty-seven dollars in her pocket. She lacked talent, but oozed ambition. Loredana, on the other hand, can sing. Really sing.

I had my own opportunity to witness this at first hand last week, when I was faced with a dilemma. The choice was either to attend a performance by contemporary electronica musicians, held in the appropriately 'challenging' venue of an underground metro station as part of the 'Vienna Days' festival. Or to watch Loredana by sneaking into a private party held at Mogosoaia palace. I opted for scaling security fences, free alcohol and Loredana. And despite having spent the best part of my youth listening to the bleeps and squeaks created by ashen-faced men crouched behind laptops, I wasn't disappointed.

The concert was just one leg of Loredana's currently touring project, one that first began on New Year's Eve in 2000. “I organised a concert with a full band of gypsy musicians in support,” she explained. “We were performing traditional melodies, and it went down incredibly. The public were so responsive that we started to build upon the idea.”

The response of the crowd this evening is no less enthusiastic. Armed with a set-list of 'cantece de pahar' (drinking songs), Loredana fills the marquee with the sound of a smoky bistro tucked somewhere behind one of the wide boulevards of the inter-war ' Paris of the East'.

“The whole idea is very eclectic,” she explains. “We're taking on jazz influences, folk influences… and songs from the ‘golden age' of Bucharest , the 1920's and 30's. Some of these songs are almost half-forgotten. Our new arrangements were a new breath of life into these old tunes.”

She might have a voice that can evoke the faded elegance of interbellic Bucharest , but Loredana still moves like a 14-year old. Managing to dance her way though an hour-long set without pausing for breath, she's evidently got a diaphragm of steel - and to top it all, she sings live. Pulling off vocal trills and acrobatics that would make Beyonce proud, she even puts on flawless accents for songs from regions like Moldova. The whole spectacle shows the kind of professionalism that comes as the result of a career in the industry which has managed to sidestep the 'Britney-effect.'

Her latest addition to the band is a confirmation of this cut-and-paste approach to musical influences - Bucharest 's very own Hip-Hop head, DJ Andrei Rusu. Against my expectations, the inclusion of a scratch-DJ in the line up isn't merely a concession to prevailing musical trends, but manages to compliment what's happening in the rest of the band. "The turntables sit perfectly with the strong jazz influence of what we're doing," Andrei explains. "It's a pretty bold project – combining everything from tango, jazz, folk and even modern beat to create a sound that still keeps alive the original spirit of the songs.”

The next concerts are set to take place in Pite[ti on Friday, in Constan]a on Saturday and in Cluj on Sunday. If you have the opportunity to see the live show, do it. It's even worth missing the avant-noise of arty types for.

© Tom Wilson / ZF 2004