Cristian Vasile

Cristian Vasile (May 8, 1908 – June 15, 1974) was a well-known Romanian tango-romance (Romanță) singer between 1928 and 1949, famous for songs such as "Zaraza", "Aprinde o țigară", "Ce să-ți mai scriu", "Pentru tine am făcut nebunii", and "Nunuțo".

He was born in Brăila, the son of Virginia and Gheorghe Vasile, a judge. He went to school in Viziru and Brăila and attended the Nicolae Bălcescu High School in his native city, after which he studied at the Music and Declamation Conservatory in Bucharest.^[1]

His greatest success, the song "Zaraza", that was said to refer to a Roma woman he was in love with at that time, was in fact an adapted version of a Uruguayan tango written in 1929 by Benjamín Alfonso Tagle Lara.^[2] A popular rumour surrounding the song says that Vasile's lover was murdered by a rival singer, Zavaidoc, and her death caused Vasile to never sing again. Vasile did in fact abruptly stop his singing career, but a more credible explanation is that he lost his voice due to cancer.^[2] Although he was supposedly at odds with Zavaidoc, there is no proof that such a rivalry existed beyond mere rumours.^[3] He died in 1974 in Sibiu.