Dan Bălan

**Dan Bălan** is a Moldovan musician born in 6 February 1979. He is a singer-songwriter and is most known for being the leader of the group O-Zone.

## Biography

**Early Life**

Dan Bălan was born on February 6, 1979 in Chișinău, Moldova to his father Mihai Bălan and his mother Ludmila Bălan. Dan also had a sister named Sanda Bălan. His first live performance was in 1988 on a TV show called Semaforul. Around the same time, his parents bought him his first instrument, a second-hand accordion. He went to accordion lessons at a music school and finished in 1994. However his parents urged him to attend university to study law. This wouldn't last long as he eventually left law school to play with his first band.

**Inferialis (1996-1998)**

Inferialis was a gothic doom metal band formed by Dan. Their first concert was held in 1995 in a concert hall in one of Chișinău's factories. For the next two years, Dan and his band performed at several small gigs. However this band wouldn't last long due to Dan finding out he's not really a heavy metal musician and started to see him as more of a producer. In 1998, he released his first song, "De La Mine"

**O-Zone (1998-2005)**

O-Zone was formed in 1998 by Dan with Petru Jelihovschi. The duo release their first studio album called Dar, Unde Ești... Shortly afterwards, Petru would leave the group and take up his own career in television. Dan soon held an audition for new members and Radu Sîrbu and Arsenie Todiraș would win the audition. In 2002, they would release their first album with the new lineup, Number 1. The album wasn't as successful as Dan thought. However O-Zone did win the Best Music Video award at the MTV Romania Music Awards in 2002. They soon got their number one hit, Dragostea Din Tei. The song would become a great success with multiple artists covering it in multiple different languages. They followed up this success with their 3rd and last album, DiscO-Zone. However the fame wouldn't last long as fighting between the group as well as creative differences would break up O-Zone.

**Crazy Loop (2007-2009)**

After the break up of O-Zone, Dan would move to Los Angeles in 2006 to record his first solo album. But as Crazy Loop. Crazy Loop is described by Dan as a funnier, crazier and more ironic version of himself. His first album would be released in 2007 by the name of The Power of Shower. With the first track of the album, Mm-ma-ma hitting number one on the Romanian Singles Chart. He also became to co-writer for Rihanna and T.I's "Live Your Life". Later in 2009, Dan re-released the Crazy Loop album as Crazy Loop Mix with four exclusive tracks.

**Later Years To Now (2010-Present)**
Since 2009, Dan has constantly been releasing songs. His next album was released in 2013 called Freedom, Part 1. Most notably 2019, he released Numa Numa 2. A sequel to Dragostea Din Tei. The song would become very popular however neither Arsenie nor Radu was asked to participate. He would later become one of the judges for season 9 & 10 of The Voice Of Ukraine. One of the the more memorable episode was in which a singer would sing a version of Dragostea Din Tei. Dan did not know this and he was pleasantly surprised.

## Discography

* The Power Of Shower (2007)
* FREEDOM. Part 1 (2012)
* Freedom, Pt. 2 (2021)

## Aliases

* Dan Bălan
* Crazy Loop

## Links

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan\_Balan
* http://danbalan78.tripod.com/id1.html