Tomorrow is of course Madonna Day in Romania. According to all news reports the whole country is descending on Bucharest for the great woman’s concert, although somewhat strangely for what is the biggest event of the year, tickets are still available.
We wrote about the Madonna concert in Bucharest when it was first announced, so do not wish the labour points now that we made then. What we do want to throw out for discussion are the causes of the enormous contradictions an event like this throws up.
Last night, the ‘news’ on both Pro TV and Antena 1 was largely taken up with reports on what Madonna had on her rider, who would be looking after her security, how many cranes had been used to construct the stage… etc. etc. On Antena 1 it was the main story.
You can bet your life that Madonna’s arrival will be televised live. Wednesday will see a frenzy of media coverage of Madonna and little else, so much so that Elena Udrea could sing ‘Land of Choice’ naked on the balcony of Casa Poporului and nobody (except us) would take any notice.
Now, here’s the problem: if Romania wants to be taken seriously as a proper country, then it really has to learn to get over the fact that a big star is coming to town. Madonna is playing Bucharest for the first time. Lots of people go to watch. That’s a (minor) news story, unquestionably. Even in the UK or the US the first night of a big tour will be featured on the latter stages of television news bulletins.
The blanket coverage that this event is being afforded in Romania however betrays how the country still sees itself two decades on from 1989: as a poor country that should be grateful Madonna – or anyone of that calibre – is coming and will therefore worship their every move.
Madonna is coming. Get over it, move on.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
And today it seems that I suffer from chronic boredom because I tell stories of my life on forums
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@Davin: exactly, the comparison between Madonna and the McDonalds fast food court is very good!
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:X
For high-school students, the McDonalds restaurant is centre of the world, they don’t realize the danger they expose themselves to. Personally I gave up fast-food restaurants 2 years ago when I got ill for a few months and – while searching for more information – I made a subscription together with friend of mine (student in Medicine) to the American Journal of Gastroenterology and, considering the illness that I had (nothing more than a Giardia infection taken by drinking water from a spring somewhere at the mountainside; but the doctors couldn’t diagnose it properly and didn’t prescribe the proper treatment so it became chronic and produced symptoms similar to very hard diseases of the digestive tract while everyone told me I had nothing…), considering the illness that I had it was enough to scare me off not only McDonalds but every other type of bad food.
So today I live mainly off salads and sometimes on rare ocasions Romanian dishes and Coca Cola (too good to abandon them forever
Oh and the illness, I managed to diagnose it by reading the American Journal of Gastroenterology and by comparing the exact symptoms, but that was some time after I treated it. Because I treated it after finding a US forum thread on Irritable Bowel Syndrome (which was not the case with me, but the Giardiasis produces similar symptoms to many diseases) where it said that digestive enzymes help IBS pacients and I took digestive enzymes and it was enough to kill the Giardia germs located in the small bowel because digestive enzymes are very powerful, they can even dissolve iron
And the enzymes were made in the USA too
I don’t want to sound elitist or anything with my comments, it’s just there are certain things that in the West many people are ‘over’. One of them is Madonna and another is the novelty of Western consumer culture. I can see here in Romania that McDonalds is still a cool lace to go to. In the US, McDonalds resturants have a horrible reputation given the slow food movement of the past 10 years and are places where poor, uneducated people hang out. Romania is in a transition phase still so it makes sense that Madonna is a big deal. Gradually as the country matures things might change. It’s the same with people being so impressed by wealth here. Yes, everyone needs some money to live a half decent life, but money must not be worshipped. For an Orthodox nation I see a society moving away from the tenets of religion and discipline.
I am surprised to hear that this is the first time Madonna has come to Bucharest. I would have thought she would been here in the 90s like Michael Jackson. Also, Craig, Madonna is a dated music icon at this point. She’s 51. It may have been cool to have seen in her in the mid 80s/early 90s, but these days?!
I would not say she is dated. She is unquestionably still a very big star. Point is Romania should stop fawning over people like this.
Really, a big star still?! I don’t know anyone in the US or Western Europe amongst my friends who would go to a Madonna concert. Madonna is putting out lots of great music??? It totally makes sense here though that people are fawning over her since Romanians seem to be easily impressed by status, money and so on.
Certainly Madona’s concert is a bit of a cultural event (facilitated by the actual mayor), when one compares it with the initially scheduled crappy car race (promoted by Liberal Democrat party sponsors). For Romanians is a huge leap forward. The aborigines might not realize it, they are still being at a “Neanderthal” stage of cultural development, but an outsider can see that they are on a steep (for them) learning curve. It will take another generation to see locals treat such events in a more condescending manner.