Miss Platnum could help the country image of Romania, because she is mixing Balkan Beat with hip hop in such a great way, that she could conquer Berlin. After the diva’s concert on the main stage, we asked her about the Balkan sound, about Romaian stereotypes, but even the recipe of everlasting smiling has come into question.

You’ve started the second day with a fabulous concert. Congratulations! How satisfied are you with the audience?

Miss Platnum: I think the audience was great and I really enjoyed performing here and during the concert people was coming all the time so it was a good sign I think. I’ve heard that normally for the first acts of the day it’s hard to make the crowd jump and we’re glad that we’ve made it.

You’re third album we’ll be out shortly. What kind of feedback have you received already about The Sweetest Hangover?

MP: It’s coming out in the beginning of September. Well I’m doing a promo for it in Germany, the feedback I got already is good. I’ve been trying to lift up the music to another level. I want to push forward the sound that I created of Balkan Beat and hip-hop mixture. We’ve worked with Marko and Boban Markovic, who made the sound of Balkan Beat more perfect. I’m really proud of the new album and I’m looking forward to the responses and what the people will say.

Why did you change your name from Platnum to Miss Platnum?

MP: What I did for the second album was kind of different and I wanted to draw a line between the old and the new stuff, the figure, the character that I am playing on the stage and I’m trying to think of other topics in life. Yeah, I wanted to make a difference and find new musical directions. 

If we are talking about changes than I have to ask what was it like to move from Romania to Berlin. How that changed you?

MP: Well, it changed me a lot off course. That happened when I was in an early age, and in Germany I didn’t feel strange, because there a lot of cultures. I’m really glad that we moved to Berlin and maybe if we wouldn’t have moved or my parents wouldn’t have left Romania, I would have become someone else. I don’t know, I feel Berlin is open for trying everything out and for finding different people to work with. In Romania it’s harder to make money for artists as well.

How did people welcome the traditional Romanian sounds?

MP: There’s kind of a Balkan movement if you can call it like that in music. People are going to concerts like Goran Bregovic, Chantel and bands like that. I am really surprised that people can enjoy and understand the music and the vibe and everyone like to go to these concerts because it is not like hip-hop on which you are just standing with folded arms. It’s more like a party and it’s another mentality that this music is transporting and people realise that even they don’t understand the words, the lyrics, they can understand the whole. Before the album came out in Romania I was quiet scared because we’re playing lot of ironic things. I was scared that they obviously wouldn’t get those right and they would think that I am making fun of them. But they accepted it really good, because we were transporting another picture of Romanian people. 

What does the picture of Romanian people look like for the outside world?

MP: People think about Romanian people that they steal and they just wash cars. People don’t know what Romania looks like, oh, and they think that we have Dracula and garlic. Romania is a beautiful country and it’s people are very open-minded and the culture is rich and I felt that when the doors of the Europe Union was opening scary pictures of Romania was showed, like little villages in the woods and some scary ritual, religious things which can happen or not I don’t know, but it can also happen in other countries as well. I think my generation will be more open-minded, but I guess the older people are just scared of Romania.

Give me the food is one of your funny songs. Do you consider yourself as an always smiling, always funny person?

MP: Well I try to you know smile and keep my head up, it doesn’t always work but I try. Off course life sometimes can be hard. I left Romania when Ceauşescu was there and I know how hard it can get with people and how is when you are poor and you cannot buy anything, cannot travel to every country and there are people in the world who are very very poor and they cannot buy medicine. My generation has everything and they don’t even realise it. They like ‘I don’t know what should I do, I get money from my parents and I travel around the world’ but meanwhile they are getting depressed and stuff like that and I think it’s better to see what you have and how rich it is and human beings are better when they work hard and solve problems every day than you have a lot of time to think about everything. I am trying remember this and I am trying to remember what journey my parents did. They left everything behind and built up a new life and I am trying to keep that in mind whenever I am getting bored with my life.