Nicolae Guță

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Nicolae Guță

| image = Nicolae Guta.png

| caption =

| background = solo_singer

| birth_name = Nicolae Linguraru

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1967|12|3}}

| birth_place = Petroșani, Hunedoara, Romania

| instrument = Accordion, Voice

| genre = Manele

| occupation = Musician

| years_active = 1992–present

| label =

| associated_acts =

| website =

| alias = Regele Manelelor

}}

Nicolae Guță (born 3 December 1967) is a Romanian Roma manele singer from Petroșani.

Musical career

Guță started as a singer and accordionist in the late 1980s, playing lăutărească music. He released his debut album in 1992. Two years later, he released his first mainstream hit – "De când te iubesc pe tine" (English: "Since I've Been Loving You"), featured on his second long-play record. His first album for a foreign audience was released in France, in 1996; while Romanian musical critics hardly had any reaction towards his music, the journalists abroad would show their appreciation and dub his music a very modern fashion of Gypsy jazz (including electric guitars and synthesizers).Keefner, Kurt. [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r267918|pure_url=yes}} The Greatest Living Gypsy Voice], allmusic.com (retrieved May 5, 2010)[http://www.cdroots.com/hm-gutsa.html The Greatest Living Gypsy Voice] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100708205303/http://www.cdroots.com/hm-gutsa.html |date=2010-07-08 }}, cdroots.com (retrieved May 5, 2010)

Starting around 1998 Guță developed a growing interest in manele music, a club-friendly subgenre of Balkans folk music influenced by Turkish and Arab pop, similar to what is known in former Yugoslavia as turbo-folk and narodna and in Bulgaria as chalga. Guță had an important role in the advancement of manele (which were a fairly new musical trend at that time) and brought in influences from Western pop and hip hop music. Some of his songs are: "Aș renunța", "Am greșit și eu", "Dacă vrei", and "Doar tu". In 2007, Guță released a cover version of Hari Mata Hari's "Lejla", the third-placed entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, renaming it "Cine ești?" (Who Are You?).

References