romanca durdulie plecata sa traiasca visul nemtesc al parintilor.
Romania is the unpopular new EU member because Romania is dirty and poor. There is corruption, brutality, pogroms, trafficking of women, the Mafia and criminal gangs threatening everybody. Following the loosening of entry regulations Romanians will flood Western Europe and destroy our wealth. We need to take care. We need to beware. Beware of Romania! The vampire country. The country of ubiquitous Ceausescu. Miss Platnum’s home.
When Ruth was eight years old her parents took refuge. Things are getting tough at Timisoara (Temeschburg). You’re not allowed to say it loud but the country faces the abyss. You’re not supposed to know but there are people who are painfully aware of it. It’s dangerous to think like that. It’s dangerous to think at all. It’s dangerous to drink too much and then tell a wrong drinking mate a right thing. The Carpathian country is a dangerous place. The Securitate never sleeps. They know everything or want to know everything. Ruth is left behind. With her grandparents. Ruth doesn’t know anything. Her parents haven’t told her anything. Couldn’t tell her anything. Ruth might have revealed something by mistake. The escape is successful. There’s a call from Germany. The grandparents are relieved and Ruth can follow her parents six months later. It’s a journey to another world. On her first night in Western Germany, the night of her arrival, she feasts on burgers and bananas. Ruth and her brother are with their parents eventually. They’ve made it.
Life is different now. It’s not always easier. The parents find work in a hospital. They are unable to work as meteorologists which is the profession they’ve learned. Ruth, who’s used to the strict rule at Romanian schools, is regarded as a striving geek and gets bullied by anti-authoritarianly brought up West German classmates. There’s just one girl, as nerdy as Ruth, who becomes her friend. A friendship that lasts until today. And Ruth starts to sing. In the school choir. In the church choir. In musicals and eventually (she’s eighteen now) in a workshop with Jocelyn B. Smith, together with Berlin housewives who hope that singing will help them to find the bravery to leave their husbands. She hesitates to ask but then she just goes ahead. She’d love take singing lessons with the grand old lady of soul. Contact my office tomorrow is the brief answer.
Ruth calls. And Jocelyn B. Smith is thrilled. Such a voice. This voice. Ruth was the greatest talent she ever met, she says, but stop praising, let’s go to work. Ruth is an apprentice now. Mrs Smith is enthused but she’s also rigid. Talent without work is worth nothing and so they work. Year after year. Ruth becomes better and better. She works as a studio singer and as a background singer. She gets booked. She has work. She has found her place in the business. Ruth has lots of self-esteem and she’s strong. Ruth is invincible. And so she records a solo album. A good album with a great voice. An ambitious album with heart and soul – unfortunately nobody is interested. Ruth is disappointed. She starts drinking. Everything sucks. The world’s rotten and life is a bitch. Grey is the morning. Noon is pale. And it doesn’t get any better in the evening. The days lose their shape. Time stops and time flies. But there’s something left. Music. Singing. Creativity. Talent. One day you start climbing out of the deep hole you are trapped in. Slowly the mist lifts. And then the thoughts come.
Who am I? What is my talent? What makes me special? Old songs resound. Memories come back. Memories of another world. Another time. Ruth is not Ruth from Berlin who sings R&B, exactly like thousands and thousands of other girls. Ruth is not only Ruth with the fantastic voice. Other women in Germany have beautiful voices too. There’s more to Ruth. Ruth owns a precious heritage that nobody else owns. She has Romania in her heart.
The dirty and poor country. The shrill and flashy country. The sad and moaning country. The beautiful and wide country. The tender and imaginary country. And Ruth starts searching. For her roots and for connections. For links between her German and her Romanian home. It should be possible to bring it all together. It should be possible to sing of the pain of love and whoop it up in Golden earrings and a traditional costume at the same time. And Ruth finds. producers who suit her: The Krauts, who used to work for Moabeat and German dancehall sensation Seeed. Then the songs. Instant burners including mad Balkan shouting. Shrill titles sung with a strong Romanian accent about big German cars and quiet songs. Sad songs. And she finds the person who brings it all together. She finds herself. She is Miss Platnum.
The unique, talented, special, eccentric, loud, quiet, shimmering, shrill and wonderful Miss Platnum. Welcome to the world of show business. Romania is on the map. Motherfucker!
via Iulica
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