Alexandra Ioana Stan (born 10 June 1989), better known as Alexandra Stan, is a Romanian singer and model. She released her debut single, “Lollipop” in late 2009, peaking at number-eighteen in her native country.
Her second release dance hit, “Mr. Saxobeat“, became her worldwide breakthrough hit, selling more 10,000,000 copies in less than a year and reaching the top five in over thirty countries, such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and the top 10 in Australia, plus top 30 in Canada and United States. She released her debut album in August 2011, titled Saxobeats. The album spawned two more singles: “Get Back” and “1,000,000“, the latter featuring rapper Carlprit. On 4 June 2012, she released a new single, “Lemonade“.
Alexandra Stan was born in Romania in Constanța. She studied at the Traian Highschool, and she recently became a student at the Faculty of Management Andrei Saguna. From a very young age, Alexandra showed a special interest in music, singing popular melodies and even creating her own songs. She participated in various music-related contests, winning awards. She participated in the Mamaia Music Festival in 2009. Her managers are Marcel Prodan and Andrei Nemirschi. Alexandra became known worldwide with her first single “Lollipop“. A short time after launching “Lollipop”, she appeared on many radio stations and shows on Romanian TV channels. Her second single, “Mr. Saxobeat”, also became a No.1 hit. Mr. Saxobeat reached the first places in the international music tops and stayed there for a few weeks. Her first tour of France was at the beginning of 2011.[2] During an interview, she stated that she believes in God and she has her own religious principles.[3]
Saxobeats era (2009–present)
In 2009, Stan released her debut promotional single, “Lollipop“[4] The song was out in late 2009 but impacted some major Germany mainstream radio stations in early 2010, with an A-list addiment in May 2010. During summer 2010, she premièred a new track “Show Me The Way” and toured Romania. In September 2010, Stan premièred her second release “Mr. Saxobeat“. In less than two months, the song became her greatest hit in Romania, peaking at number-one on the Romanian Top 100 and defending the position for eight consecutive weeks.[5] The song was commercially successful worldwide. In early 2011, it entered the Spanish Singles Chart and debuted inside the top ten of the French Singles Chart, as well as in the Canadian Hot 100. It hit the No. 1 position in Italy and Denmark, and subsequently in Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. In late May, “Saxobeat” became the first Romanian song to reach No. 1 in Germany since “Dragostea din Tei“ (2004). It was a number-one in Austria, Germany and Switzerland for twenty weeks in total.
After the success of “Mr. Saxobeat”, Stan released a follow-up “Get Back“. It peaked at number-one in Slovakia, at number-four in the Romanian Top 100, at number-eight in Finland and inside the top twenty in over five countries. The song “Lollipop” was re-released for international digital markets exclusively, but with no success. In summer 2011, Stan released another single, “Million”, featuring famed Zimbabwean rapper Carlprit. As of September 2011, the song has received airplay in France but missed the top forty. Its music video’s shots started on 6 December 2011.
On 29 August 2011, Stan released her début album, titled Saxobeats. It features eight tracks plus five remixes. The album was first released in France, then in Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, Poland and Italy.[6][7] It was released in the United States and Canada on 25 October, through Ultra Records. It is yet to be released in the UK. Her fourth overall single “1,000,000” (featuring Zimbabwean rap star Carlprit) has just been sent to mainstream radio stations in Belgium, France and Romania.[8]
Stan received multiple certification awards for “Mr. Saxobeat”, including platinum in Australia[9] and Spain,[10] Platinum in Denmark[11] and Sweden[12] and Multi-Platinum in Italy.[13] At the 2011 Romanian Music Awards, she received two nominations for “Mr. Saxobeat” (“Best Dance” and “Best Song”, winning the latter) and two nods for herself “Best Female” and winning the “Borderbreaker Award”. She was also nominated for Best European Act at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, after winning Best Romanian Act where she was nominated alongside rapper Guess Who and Puya, singer Smiley and band Fly Project. In November,[when?] Stan lost the Best European to Lena Meyer-Landrut from Germany. In June 2012, Alexandra Stan released a new single called “Lemonade”. Her music video was released on YouTube on 4 June. The video has over 29 million views on YouTube as of 22 November, and has charted in Italy and Romania. “Lemonade” holds a 16 on the Romanian Top 100 chart, as of 15 July. Stan claims to be working in the studio, for making her new album. A new song following up to her “hit” Lemonade was released 27 September 2012, titled “Cliche“.
In 2012, Alexandra Stan, won an EBBA-award. Every year the European Border Breakers Awards (EBBA) recognise the success of ten emerging artists or groups who have reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year.
Marcel Prodan case
In June 2013 she was hospitalised and concerts were cancelled. While her staff initially claimed she was involved in an accident, she later accused her manager, Marcel Prodan, of beating her.[14] On 18 June, Alexandra Stan filed a criminal complaint against Prodan for blackmail. She plans to add “bodily injury” and “burglary” to the complaint.[15] Her new album was supposed to be released in September 2013, but due to the incident with her manager, the release has been postponed. She was interviewed by the police a day after the attack, while still in hospital.[16] According to Romanian sources, she decided to take a break.
