Дан Балан

Dan Balan (sometimes pronounced his surname as Balan) was born in the city of Kishinev (Moldova) in the family of Ambassador Mihai and TV presenter Lyudmila Balan. From childhood, Dan was fond of music, learned to play the accordion.

Dan's musical career began as a teenager: he played in the bands Pantheon and Inferialis, which made music in the style of "gothic doom metal". In 1998, Balan recorded the solo composition "De La Mine", and a year later, together with his friend Petru Zhelikhovsky, he created the O-Zone group. The band's debut album was called "Dar, Unde Eşti ..." ("But where are you ...").

In 2001, Balan reformed O-Zone, taking Arseniy Toderash and Radu Sirbu into the group. The trio soon signed a contract with a Romanian record company and released the album "Number 1". The songs "Numai Tu" and "Despre Tine" became hits in Moldova and Romania. The album "DiscO-Zone" followed soon after. The single "Dragostea Din Tei" from this disc made the group one of the most popular in the whole world. Despite the fact that the song is performed in Romanian, the song remained at number one on the European Hot 100 Singles chart for 12 weeks.