A look at Romanian holiday music over the 2023 season.
- INTRODUCTION
- ARTISTS (321)
- TRACKS (1,016)
- ARTIST PROFILE: STEFAN HRUSCA
- ARTIST PROFILE: PAULA SELING
- ARTIST PROFILE: NARCISA SUCIU
- CONCLUSIONS
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to my new series, a data-driven, 360-view of the Romanian music industry.
Romania gave us super hits like Ma Ya Hi (Dragostea Din Tei), superstars like INNA and 2023 American Idol-winning production teams like Romdrops.
The industry is alive, kickin’ and surprisingly under-reported.
As data on music & ticket sales is not centralized, my focus is a 360-view on streaming, social media, and radio airplay for the 8.1k Romanian artists tracked.
By subscribing you get full access to the insights via email (via secure Mailchimp) while the general public will get highlights on georgemotoc.com
For my first report, we’re looking at how Romanian artists capitalize on the holiday music season.
ARTISTS (321)
Most of the Romanian music artists use the “holiday” and “Christian” tags when they publish their Christmas repertoire. The Romanian word for holiday music is “colinde” but that term is not available as a genre or subgenre when tagging.
321 out of the 8,061 total Romanian artists tracked by Chartmetric have holiday or Christian genres listed in their profile. That’s about 4%.
Poor genre-tagging and artist-account setup habits lead to reporting problems such as those in the pictures below: Antonia has two profiles on DSPs; Kaira is not a holiday music artist. Notably missing from the list is Paul Surugiu-Fuego, one of the top holiday music artists in Romania, reason being the wrong tagging of his genre and subgenres on his DSP profiles, as seen below.
Listed below are top 20 of the 320 Romanian artists listed in Holiday and Christian genres. *Full list is available in csv format for those interested – use the CONTACT button.
They are listed by their overall Chartmetric score: “An artist’s Chartmetric Artist Score is a weighted average that captures their overall performance across 16 social and streaming platforms. Just like earning points, this number will increase (or decrease) as the artist builds their fanbase and increases engagement with their audience.”
So this is an overall chart, not reflective of their 2023 season in particular.
YouTube is a popular platform for music consumption in Romania. Looking at top 5 YouTube Engagement Rate holiday-music artists in Romania, we find (relatively) newcomers MA RA MU at the top. This metric shows how many of your followers leave a Like for you on YouTube.
The top 4 places are artists specialized in colinde from Maramures, one of the top destinations for Christmas and winter holidays in Romania.
TRACKS (1,016)
Of the 185,809 Romanian tracks, 1,016 are listed as holiday music (0.5%). Below are the top ten for YouTube views during the 2023 season. Cipri Popescu and Andra are top artists.
Very few new tracks were released in the past year in the ‘holiday’ genre in Romania. If we add ‘Christian’ to the genre filter, the total goes to 177.
ARTIST PROFILE: STEFAN HRUSCA
Hrusca (age 66, born in Ieud – Maramures, and based out of Toronto, Canada since 1991), the hardest working man in Romania’s holiday music market, has the numbers to prove it in 2023:
- European tour (18 Nov – 9 Dec), 22 concerts
- Romanian tour (10 – 22 December), 15 concerts
- his combined Spotify & YouTube audience spans 17 countries and 47 cities
Hrusca has no new tracks or albums, but his 35+ year catalog is highly successful on several platforms. Here are some high starred events in his catalog:
His relentless touring effort is reflected in high music consumption during December 2023.
Hrusca is properly set on the main streaming services. For social media, his hub is the Facebook page, where fan talks spiked during his tour.
ARTIST PROFILE: PAULA SELING
Also hailing from Maramures, Seling is an accomplished pop artist that started her career in the 1990s. She has global appeal as she often releases music in English. Aside from the pop and holiday genres, she has a developing catalog in the Christian genre.
- European – Romanian tour (19 Nov – 29 Dec), 19 concerts, produced by Sublime
- Canadian tour (30 Nov – 05 Dec), 6 concerts, produced by KlubEvent
She released two new tracks in late 2023 to prop up her busy touring schedule: “Hai, Române!” and “Colindiță Sfântă” (with Ducu Bertzi; the song is improperly tagged as “Others” for genre).
The best ranking of the two is “Hai, Romane!” – released Nov 24, just in time for Romania’s national day (Dec 1) – a cross over into traditional Romanian folklore.
ARTIST PROFILE: NARCISA SUCIU
Born and raised in Baia Mare (Maramures), Narcisa is an accomplished artist that started in the 1990s. She is a staple on the holiday music circuit, and this year she toured in Romania with a supporting band of three (guitar, violin, keys): 14 concerts produced by Sublime.
While she toured Canada several times in the past, she has untapped potential in Western Europe and also in the other Romanian-speaking country, Moldova.
Her genres also include folk and pop; notably she was also successful with children music – a niche genre less explored by mainstream artists. Tracks from her 2006 album are on 83 playlists on Spotify, while her children music album is third in her discography when looking at Spotify’s playlist reach.
CONCLUSIONS
- The Romanian holiday music market is shared between pop and traditional folkloric artists. Pop artists like Paula Seling and Andra attempt crossovers into the significantly sized folklore market. There is virtually no holiday music in other genres such as rock or classical
- Very few new tracks were launched for the 2023 holiday season, which suggests existing artists relying on catalogue but also represents an opportunity for new artists in search of “that special” new Christmas song
- Romanian diaspora is a market with growth potential during the holiday season. Western Europe is a prime candidate, while UK, USA and Canada come close. Moldova is a Romanian-speaking nation and should also be part of the strategy.
- Poor meta-data is rampant in the Romanian holiday music catalogue. This prevents artists from being discovered and promoted.
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George Motoc 
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