music and lyrics Radu Ille
arrangement Matias Kupiainen - Mikael Suomela - Marko Hilpo
© Manus
vocals Petri Kaivanto & Milana Misic
keys Matias Kupiainen ja Petri Somer
guitars Mikael Suomela ja Matias Kupiainen
bass Kalle Keski-Orvola
drums Anssi Nykänen
conductor Marko Hilpo
violins Ville Koponen, Maija Sinisalo, Eveliina Paavola, Heidi-Maria Makkonen
violoncellos Jaakko Pulakka ja Maria Särkivuori
production: Matias Kupiainen, Minor Music Oy
recording and mixing: Minor Music Oy, Apropoo Studiot
mastering: Minerva Pappi, Finnvox
Ⓟ 2004 Prontosaurus Oy & Vagabond Sounds Oy
At the Golden Stag festival all the foreign participants had to sing some Romanian hit. From the choices we were given we chose a fiery Gypsy polka from Maramureș, and our heavy metal version was very well received by the locals, since at the time Finnish operatic metal group Nightwish was number one on the Romanian album list. Some even anticipated we could win, but so it happened that there was a major trap staged for us.
The original performer and the author of the song Radu Ille was among the audience, although when I asked, they said he's nowhere around in the region. Well, in the middle of our live performance in front of 15 million TV viewers and over five thousands of the live audience I had to fight for the microphone and almost run away from him, since he was so excited that he jumped to the stage by error far too early. Because for sure this gave us a lot of unfair advantage and airtime, the international jury decided to disqualify us from the televoting. I guess we actually could have won the televoting, because this scandal was discussed for a long time in the Romanian media.