SPECIAL From Babasha to eMAG. "The bad manea" and "the useful manea"

In 2024, Babasha’s appearance on the Coldplay stage provoked booing and sparked a national debate about musical tastes and prejudices. Two years later, eMAG is using manele in its Black Friday campaigns for the second consecutive year. What does this change tell us about the way Romanian society views a popular yet still disputed musical genre?

In June 2024, some of the approximately 50,000 spectators present at Coldplay’s concert at the National Arena booed Babasha, who had been invited to sing alongside Chris Martin. The moment divided public opinion: some invoked the right not to appreciate a musical genre for which they had not paid for a ticket, while others saw the spectators’ reaction as an expression of cultural and social prejudices.

In November 2026, manele entered a different context. For its Black Friday campaign, eMAG used an adaptation of the song „Ce ai, fă, de faci așa?”, performed by Iuly Neamțu, transforming the chorus into „Ce-ți iei de faci așa?”. The choice prompted negative reactions, but also appreciation for the advertisement’s memorable nature.

However, this is not the first time the retailer has turned to this musical genre. In 2025, eMAG used „E mult, e greu”, Johnny Romano’s song, to promote Black Friday. Two consecutive campaigns suggest that the association is not accidental, but part of a commercial communication strategy.

So how does a musical genre booed in a prestigious cultural context come to be used by one of Romania’s largest brands to address the general public?

Musical taste, a form of social distinctionSociologist Pierre Bourdieu explained in his 1979 work „Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste” that cultural preferences are not merely individual choices, but can also function as tools of social differentiation. What we listen to, appreciate, or reject sometimes also says something about the group to which we wish to belong.

From this perspective, reactions to Babasha’s appearance can be viewed beyond the simple opposition between rock and manele. For part of Romanian society, manele continue to be associated with certain social categories and with stereotypes concerning education, status, or ethnic identity.This does not mean that every person who rejects manele is motivated by prejudice. Musical preferences are legitimate. But the intensity of the reactions may show that sometimes it is not merely the music that is being rejected, but also what it comes to symbolize socially.

What the NewsVibe data show

The scale of the 2024 debate is reflected in NewsVibe’s monitoring. Between June 10 and 30, the platform identified 1,119 items associated with the query „coldplay babasha”, with a peak of 544 results on June 13, immediately after the first concert.

Of these, 806 were automatically classified as neutral, 219 as negative, and 94 as positive. The overall sentiment score was -0.23.

By contrast, for the period October 31 – November 6, 2026, NewsVibe’s monitoring of the eMAG advertisement identified 20 items, including 10 negative, six neutral, and four positive, with an overall score of -0.40.

The differences cannot be interpreted as a direct measure of acceptance of manele. The periods and queries are different, and the results about eMAG also include general news about Black Friday. In addition, the automated analysis evaluates the tone of the items, not representative opinions of the population.

Nevertheless, the data indicate that associating manele with important cultural and commercial spaces continues to generate public debate.

When popular culture becomes a marketing strategy

The two eMAG campaigns raise another issue: the commercial value of popular culture.In 2025, the company used „E mult, e greu”, and in 2026 it returned to the same musical sphere with Iuly Neamțu’s song. From an advertising perspective, choosing recognizable songs can increase attention and message memorability.

But there is a difference between visibility and acceptance. The fact that an advertisement is discussed intensely does not automatically mean that it is appreciated or generates sales.In the case of the current campaign, the criticism is not limited to the musical genre. Professor Ionela Băluță, a specialist in gender studies, draws attention in a HotNews article to the stereotypes about women associated with the original song. Even though eMAG adapted the lyrics, the song may retain some of its initial meanings.

This distinction is important: criticizing a song’s message is not the same as rejecting the entire musical genre.At the same time, the repeated use of manele in campaigns shows that eMAG considers this musical universe relevant to communicating with its audience. Without internal data, we cannot know whether the strategy is effective, but we can observe that a frequently stigmatized genre has become a communication tool for a mainstream brand.

Who grants legitimacy to popular culture?

There is a common element between Coldplay and eMAG: in both cases, manele enter a space of major visibility through an established actor.

In 2024, Chris Martin gave Babasha an international stage. In 2026, eMAG used a manea to promote a national commercial event.

But manele did not become popular because of Coldplay or eMAG. Their audience already exists, and digital platforms have been contributing for years to the circulation and success of this genre.

What changes is the context in which the music appears and the legitimacy that association with an international artist or a powerful brand can confer upon it.

Herein lies the paradox: a musical genre can be popular enough to be commercially valuable, yet insufficiently accepted not to provoke reactions when it enters spaces considered prestigious.

And the fact that the market uses it does not necessarily demonstrate that society has overcome its prejudices. It may simply show that popularity becomes more important than traditional cultural boundaries when there is a commercial interest.

Manele have entered the mainstream. But have they also been accepted?

Babasha’s appearance in 2024 and eMAG’s campaigns in 2025 and 2026 do not demonstrate a linear transition from rejection to acceptance. Rather, they show that manele already occupy an important place in popular culture, even though their prestige continues to be contested.

In 2024, the question was why a manea appeared on the Coldplay stage. In 2026, the question is why one of Romania’s largest brands chose manele for the second consecutive year to promote its Black Friday.

Perhaps the real change is not that Romanians have begun accepting a musical genre they previously rejected. Rather, its popularity has become large enough that cultural institutions and companies can no longer ignore it.

Manea did not need everyone’s approval to become mainstream. But its presence in the mainstream does not mean that the dispute over taste, social status, and cultural legitimacy has ended.

*****Summary prepared with the help of a data feed provided by the media monitoring platform NewsVibe Romania. The analysis, data, and images presented were enhanced with the help of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.