Anthony Icuagu: A Multitalented Producer, Composer and Singer

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Alia Anastasiei, Andy Platon, Andy Platon Velvet Love, Anthony Icuagu, Anthony Icuagu NonStop, Anthony Icuagu Velvet Love, Anthony Icuagu: A Multitalented Producer Composer and Singer, Claudia Moscovici, Claudia Moscovici Intre Doua Lumi, Claudia Moscovici Velvet Love, Curtea Veche Publishing Intre Doua Lumi, Intre Doua Lumi, Ioana Picos, Marcel Lovin, Marcel Lovin Velvet Love, MediaPro, MediaPro Pictures, Mihai Marin, NonStop, Revistavip.net, Smiley, Smiley NonStop, The Voice of Romania, Trupa Taxi, Trupa Taxi NonStop, Valentina Nastase, Velvet Love, Velvet Totalitarianism, Vip.net, Vocea Romaniei, Vocea Romaniei The Voice of Romania

Anthony Icuagu

This fall, at the book launch of my novel in Romanian translation, Velvet Totalitarianism/Intre Doua Lumi (Curtea Veche Publishing, 2011), I had the great pleasure of meeting in person, among others, the talented composers, producers, singer and actors who did an amazing music video trailer of my novel, called Velvet Love. 

http://www.curteaveche.ro/Intre_doua_lumi-3-1298 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KURICuT8TcA

I have already written an article about Andy Platon, the composer and producer of Velvet Love, co-directed with Anthony Icuagu and featuring the singer Marcel Lovin and the actors Ioana Picos, Mihai Marin and  Alia Anastasiei.

https://fineartebooks.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/andy-soundland-platon-a-romanian-pop-music-prodigy/

Andy Platon’s close friend and collaborator, Anthony Icuagu, is also very talented and accomplished. Aside from contributing to creating the book trailer Velvet Love, he’s also an incredibly talented singer, a semifinalist in the Romanian version of American Idol (called Vocea Romaniei or The Voice of Romania) and the co-producer of one of Romania’s most popular music videos, NonStop, by Trupa TAXI.  

Anthony co-directed NonStop with his collaborators and friends, Marcel Lovin (who, incidentally, is the talented singer of Velvet Love) and the legendary music producer Smiley. This music video seems like the recipe for success: it’s got excellent, cinematic clips; a plethora of well-known actresses that are perfectly suited for their parts; great music by Trupa Taxi that seamlessly combines pop music and swing to draw a wide audience; excellent lyrics that are true without becoming trite, and–last but not least–a great sense of humor, which is very difficult to pull off in a music video.  You can see this magic mixture for  yourselves:

Not surprisingly, the video NonStop got over two and a half million hits in less than three months on Youtube, competing in popularity with the best-known international popstars featured by VEVO. The top-notch Romanian music production company MediaPro Pictures–which has become international both in its music and in its reach–also deserves a warm congratulations for its success.

To present this multitalented singer and producer to my readers, I’m translating from Romanian  Anthony Icuagu’s recent interview with the journalist Valentina Nastase, in Revista VIP.net.

http://www.revistavip.net/Stiri_de_ultima_ora/Anthony_Icuagu_concurent_la_Vocea_Romaniei_regizor_pentru_Taxi_/7265/

Anthony Iguagu, a contestant at Vocea Romaniei (The Voice of Romania) and a member of Smiley’s Team is the music producer of the new hit music video launched by Trupa Taxi, called NonStop. Their collaboration began after a common friend recommended him to Trupa Taxi. “I worked closely with Marcel Lovin, with whom I also teamed up on The Voice of Romania. He is the ‘concept developer’. He helps me with ideas and I hope that with this winning formula we can continue to work on more projects together in the future,” Anthony said.

“For the filming of the piece NonStop everything went smoothly. Trupa Taxi arrived with over 20 actresses and set up the location, while we came up with the ideas. We thought of over 20 clips that would go well with the actresses invited to participate in this music video.” Anthony studies video production and this was the first major music video he created. He worked on other projects, but this was the most important one and his calling card.

“I enjoy producing and love music, so creating music videos is perfect for me. I think that I haven’t lived long enough to think seriously yet about making a whole movie. Everything in its time,” he declared. The next project he’s working on is a music video for Lorana, a Romanian singer preparing her launch in the music world.

Interview by Valentina Nastase, VIP.net, December 9, 2011

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Andy “Soundland” Platon: A Romanian Pop Music Prodigy

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aesthetics, Alexandra Stan, Alia Anastasiei, Andy "Soundland" Platon, Andy "Soundland" Platon: A Romanian Pop Music Prodigy, Andy Platon, Andy Platon Velvet Love, Anthony Icuagu, art blog, Claudia Moscovici, contemporary art, contemporary pop music, Curtea Veche Publishing, Editura Curtea Veche, Edward Maya, fine art, fineartebooks, fineartebooks.com, Intre Doua Lumi, Intre Doua Lumi by Claudia Moscovici, Ioana Picos, Lost Without You, Lost Without You by Andy Platon, Marcel Lovin, Marcel Lovin Velvet Love, MediaPro Pictures, MediaPro Pictures Romania, Mihai Marin, modern art, Mr. Saxobeat, pop music, postromantic art, postromantic movement, postromanticism, postromanticism.com, Romanian pop music, Romanticism and Postromanticism, Stereo Love, Velvet Love and Velvet Totalitarianism, Velvet Totalitarianism, Velvet Totalitarianism by Claudia Moscovici, VEVO, Vika Jigulina

Ever since I was a teenager I’ve been  a big fan of pop music. As I grew older, I retained a certain nostalgia for 80’s and 90’s bands like U2, who seem to have made it through the generations and even have echoes in the music my teenage daughter Sophie now enjoys, such as the songs of David Guetta (particularly the new hit single, Without You). Granted, I lean more towards Amy Winehouse and Katie Melua than towards the contemporary club music and hip hop hits my daughter prefers. Since she’s become a teenager a little over a year ago and began monopolizing the radio, however, I’ve grown used to today’s pop music, including songs by Lil Wayne, the New Boyz, Pitbull and–of course!–Lady Gaga.

Although I may not listen to most of their music on my own, my teenage daughter and I found unexpected common ground in singers like David Guetta, Maroon 5 and–especially–Adele. As I began to listen regularly to her radio station, two songs struck me as contemporary but also somehow different, out of the norm: Stereo Love and Mr. Saxobeat. Once I looked them up on the Internet, I found out that both were sung by fellow Romanians: Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina (Stereo Love) and Alexandra Stan (Mr. Saxobeat). I thought to myself, not without a note of national pride: Those Romanians did it again! The truth is that Romanians have always been wonderful at adapatation. To my mind, the best kind of adaptation is when you manage to simultaneously fit in with whatever’s popular at the time and, somehow, still stand out as unique, by retaining a certain Eastern European flavor.

Perhaps this trace of uniqueness explains part of the  international success of hit songs like Stereo Love and Mr. Saxobeat, which isn’t easy to come by, since the competition is tough and so many millions of singers want to become international pop sensations. Of course, the huge success of some Romanian songs is attributable not only to the talent of the singers, but also to the video production capacities and international market connections of MediaPro Pictures, Romania’s largest TV and music video production company, which is part of CME (Central European Media Enterprises).

Once I found out from my publisher, Editura Curtea Veche, that  my first novel, Velvet Totalitarianism, will be launched in Romanian translation (under the title Intre Doua Lumi) in September of 2011, I began exploring the possibility of collaborating with talented Romanian composers and musicians for a music video/book trailer of my novel. Via LinkedIn, I met the Romanian singer, composer, director and producer Andy “Soundland” Platon, who ended up doing a wonderful music video based on my novel, called Velvet Love:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KURICuT8TcA

Andy Platon is a Romanian pop music prodigy.  I say “pop music” only because that’s what he excells at best. But Andy has enormous range both in terms of the scope of his talents–as a composer, music video director and producer and singer–and in the versatility of his musical abilities, from classical music to pop music and everything in between. Andy made his debut while still only a teenager in 2009 with the song Lost Without You, which became a finalist in the competition Battle of Songs. This show  was featured not only in Romania, but also in France, Russia and Turkey. Lost Without You was also nominated for the Shockwave NME Music Awards 2010. More recently, he’s known for his collaborations with Troy Lynch – The BeatBoyz (T.I., Gucci Mane, 112), Loredana Groza and  Marius Nedelcu  featuring  Alexandra Ungureanu, Irina Popa, Xonia, Anthony Icuagu (ex. Insane), Ianna Novac (ex. ASIA, Ladies).

His new single and music video,  Velvet Love,  performed by the talented singer Marcel Lovin, captures with feeling and sensibility some of the most poignant scenes of my novel Velvet Totalitarianism, including the complex dynamics between the main characters, Radu and Ioana, as they struggle with the tension between their love for each other and harassment by the Secret Police. As an art critic I found the video to be very artistic–almost photographic in feel–showing clearly Andy’s eye for capturing each scene in a single image, as well as the talent of his Director of Photography, Anthony Icuagu.

The main actors–Ioana Picos as Ioana and Mihai Marin as Radu–did a wonderful job playing the romantic couple in the novel, whose risky love for each other may be saved by their parental love for their son, Lucian, played by Alia Anastasiei. Given Andy Platon’s versatility, range and many talents–as well as the excellent actors, singers and producers he collaborates with–I expect that soon his songs will be heard on the radio all over the world; maybe even here, in Michigan, U.S.A, on my daughter’s favorite radio station, 98.7 Kiss F.M.

Claudia Moscovici, postromanticism.com