{"id":18845,"date":"2024-05-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18845"},"modified":"2024-05-11T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T07:00:00","slug":"moldovas-fight-for-freedom-from-banned-musicians-to-eurovision-superstars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18845","title":{"rendered":"Moldova&#8217;s fight for freedom: From banned musicians to Eurovision superstars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Moldovan Eurovision singer Pasha Parfeni was one of the few to stand up for freedom. It cost him everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A local celebrity, Parfeni, was about to step onto the stage. But no one was ready for what he was planning to do. It was a late summer evening in August 2016. People gathered in the centre of Chi\u0219in\u0103u, Moldova&#8217;s capital, for a national concert. The army victoriously marched through the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This European country was marking 25 years of independence from the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/the-challenges-facing-female-entrepreneurs-in-moldova\/\">The challenges facing female entrepreneurs in Moldova<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/is-moldovas-diaspora-ready-to-return-home\/\">Is Moldova\u2019s diaspora ready to return home?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/studying-in-a-phantom-state-the-moldovan-school-standing-up-to-russian-supremacy\/\">Studying in a phantom state: The Moldovan school standing up to Russian supremacy<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>But there was little to celebrate. The Democratic Party of Moldova, under Vlad Plahotniuc&#8217;s lead, was taking control of most aspects of the country: the courtrooms, the police, local governments, and banks. Between 2016 and 2019, he almost entirely controlled Moldova. Plahotniuc, who fled Moldova in 2019, has also been <a href=\"https:\/\/balkaninsight.com\/2023\/05\/30\/moldovan-oligarch-plahotniuc-faces-trial-in-grand-theft-case\/\">linked<\/a> to the &#8216;theft of the century&#8217;\u2014the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/magazine-33166383\">disappearance<\/a> of one billion US dollars from Moldovan banks in 2014. Transparency International called Moldova a \u201ccaptured state\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Out of fear, people would lower their voices when mentioning the \u201cpuppet master\u201d Plahotniuc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The concert at the heart of the city was about to begin. Moldova&#8217;s leadership sat in front of the stage, but a fence separated the VIPs from the rest of the people. A beloved musician, Parfeni, stepped on the stage and said to the microphone, \u201cI am absolutely sure that you all dream of Moldova free of corruption and oligarchs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He unbuttoned his shirt and revealed the message <em>#nuplaha<\/em> on his t-shirt. <em>#nuplaha<\/em> had become a popular message used by those opposing Plahotniuc. The audience gasped. People were stunned. Seeing someone publicly take a stand against the oligarch was rare. In a country slipping into dictatorship, this was a courageous act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/14117933-10209933450756405-1798715700014999016-n4-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-87809\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>Pasha Parfeni on that historic evening in 2016. Photo: Private Collection<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>What made Pasha take this step?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eight years later, we sat down with Pasha to reflect. \u201cAround that time, the minister of culture told me that if I don&#8217;t write anything inappropriate about the government, she will invite me to all the state concerts,\u201d he recalls. That felt dishonest to him. \u201cLies bring problems and unconstructive things into your life. They bring a mistake in the formula of happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The last drop was when he saw that the country&#8217;s so-called leaders and elite were at the front of the stage, separated from the general audience by a fence. He then decided it was time to stand, hoping many would follow his example.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lockdown<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>That didn&#8217;t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI had good relations with everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn&#8217;t expect to be completely blacklisted.\u201d After provocatively tearing his shirt on that stage, he was banned from performing everywhere &#8211; state concerts, television and radio stations, restaurants, and even private events. It was a total lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most musicians shied away from taking such stands, but one other singer, Catalin Josan, also resisted and spoke up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the same year, in autumn, he sang in front of a sea of Moldovans waving European Union and Moldovan flags: \u201cAt least for a song, let&#8217;s get together. Let&#8217;s remember who we were and are,\u201d Josan sang. The audience hummed along. A banner beside him said, \u201cLet&#8217;s take our country back.\u201d His friends&#8217; circle was narrowing. People he thought he shared the same values with would step away and distance themselves from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remembering that day, Catalin hoped it would bring hope and strength to people who thought things would never change. Catalin&#8217;s father, Nicolea Josan, took to the stage, too. This wasn&#8217;t the first time the father-son duo performed this song together. He had been singing with his father since he was a toddler.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the late 1980s, his father, Nicolae Josan, had been at the \u201cbarricades\u201d exactly the same way and took his son with him. Before, Moldovans were fighting communism, now experienced thugs. It seemed as if the Moldovan musicians kept fighting the same evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI felt that things still hadn&#8217;t changed. Thirty years of independence, but the censor is still here,\u201d Catalin remembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Diaspora to the rescue<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>About a million Moldovans live abroad and are actively involved in the country&#8217;s politics. Many of them went to look for a better life but still kept in touch with their family and friends left behind. They kept following the news and rooting for their homeland. They are often deeply connected to what is happening in Moldova. Once they saw that Pasha and Catalin got blacklisted because of standing up to the oligarch, they came to the rescue and invited them on a tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pasha took his girlfriend, Yuliana Scutaru, along and traveled the world, visiting the expats. They went to Canada, the US, Ireland, and Italy. They were called \u201cthe courageous voices\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI feel a little of like diaspora. They helped me and protected me,\u201d Pasha said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once Pasha and Catalin returned to their homeland, Plahotniuc&#8217;s time was coming to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plahotniuc fled Moldova in June 2019 after being pushed out of parliament as part of a government shakeup. He has been out of public view since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Back to Eurovision<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Catalin and Pasha&#8217;s popularity grew in free Moldova, and last year, Pasha represented Moldova in Eurovision for the second time. He won his spot in the final contest, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SABOfYgGk8M&amp;ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest\">singing<\/a> <em>Soarele \u0219i Luna<\/em> (The Sun and the Moon). With traditional melody and instruments, he brought Moldovan folk to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a fully democratic country, he is now free to speak up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s such a huge comfort, to be honest,\u201d Pasha concludes. \u201cIf it all happened again, I would do nothing differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is glad that the next generation of Moldovan singers is much more outspoken and free to speak. Catalin adds: \u201cMaybe we helped a bit by bringing courage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This article was co-written by&nbsp;<strong>Tiina Kaukvere<\/strong>.<\/em> <em>Top<\/em> <em>photo: Pasha Parfeni performing at Eurovision 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Unlike many news and information platforms,&nbsp;<em>Emerging Europe<\/em>&nbsp;is free to read, and always will be.&nbsp;There is no paywall here.&nbsp;We are independent,&nbsp;not affiliated with nor representing any political party or business&nbsp;organisation.&nbsp;We want the very best for emerging Europe, nothing more, nothing less. Your support will help us continue to spread the word about this amazing region.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You can contribute&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/copy-of-add-a-heading.png\" alt=\"emerging europe support independent journalism\" class=\"wp-image-50811\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moldovan Eurovision singer Pasha Parfeni was one of the few to stand up for freedom. It cost him everything. A local celebrity, Parfeni, was about to<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6578],"tags":[7313,6607,6750,6320,348,7312,7311],"class_list":["post-18845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-sport","tag-catalin-josan","tag-chisinau","tag-eurovision-song-contest","tag-featured","tag-moldova","tag-pasha-parfeni","tag-vlad-plahotniuc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}