Original subtitles

Their songs were iconic. Do you remember

them?

>> [music]

>> More than 70 million records were sold,

topping the charts in over 20 countries.

The Enigma project [music] brought the

new age genre back to life, combining

Gregorian chants with electronic [music]

beats and sultry whispers. But despite

creating a global phenomenon, the mind

behind Enigma made a radical decision to

completely reject celebrity status. This

is Michael Cretu, a reclusive,

incredibly shy perfectionist who built

an empire in the shadows. In this video,

you will find out how the search for the

perfect sound ended up [music] in court.

Can you believe Michael faced major

lawsuits for using the voices of a

renowned German choir and an indigenous

couple without permission in his most

successful songs? We'll also dive into

his life beyond the studio, his marriage

to the German Madonna. Yes, I am talking

about Sandra, the singer behind the

[music] hit I'll Never Be Maria

Magdalena, the building of his family

with twin sons, and the discreet reasons

that [music] led to a divorce that ended

a historic partnership. I'm going to

walk you through [music] everything in

detail. So, turn up the volume. Today,

we're going to decipher Enigma.

>> [music]

>> Michael Cretu is Romanian and was born

in Bucharest in 1957. Since he was a

child, he already showed signs of being

a musical prodigy. He was drawn to

stories of medieval knights and

fascinated by outer space. As he sat at

the piano, he imagined the keys were

controls of a spaceship. His [music]

talent was so evident that teachers

predicted he would become a great

concert pianist. [music] In the early

1970s, Michael moved to Germany, where

he became a citizen and graduated

[music] from the University of Frankfurt

in composition and conducting. What

seemed like the beginning of a classical

career changed radically [music] when he

discovered electronic music. Fascinated

by synthesizers, he traded orchestral

scores for studio work and became

[music] obsessed with creating new

sounds. His talent caught the attention

of major names such [music] as Frank

Farian, who hired him as a studio

keyboardist for the pop phenomenon Boney

M. But Michael did not stay behind the

scenes. He released albums as a solo

artist and saw his hit Samurai climb to

the top of the charts across Europe.

>> [music]

>> But the big leap in his career happened

in 1982 when he met singer Sandra Lauer,

one of the standout beauties of the

group [music] Arabesque.

It is [music] worth mentioning that

there's already a video about Sandra's

story here on the channel, so check it

out later. Completely in love and

convinced of her talent despite some

early setbacks, Michael took control of

her career. He produced Maria Magdalena,

took the song to number one [music] in

21 countries, and married her in 1988.

In the studio, they were [music] an

unbeatable duo. But Michael's brilliance

was not limited to his work with his

wife. During the 1980s, his reputation

as a studio wizard grew [music] to the

point that he was sought after by some

of the biggest names in music. However,

by the end of the 1980s, success had

taken its [music] toll and Michael felt

exhausted. He was tired of the

commercial and predictable formula of

pop [music] music. He needed a new

challenge. In 1988, the couple moved to

Ibiza, Spain. [music] In the island's

peaceful atmosphere, far from the

pressure of the music industry, he found

[music] the mental space to reconnect

with two great passions from his

childhood, the Middle Ages [music] and

outer space. Michael decided to blend

ancient Gregorian chants [music] with

hypnotic electronic beats, adding a

mysterious female voice. The idea was

not to promote the image of [music] an

artist, but rather to launch a faceless

musical project focused purely on its

sonic atmosphere. In a 2016 interview

with Schalissimo magazine, Michael said,

"At first, I wanted to find out whether

music could succeed on its own without

people knowing who created it, and it

worked. My focus was not on the visuals.

I always said that I am not important.

Only the work should be in the

spotlight. I don't like the cult of

personality. That kind of thing just

doesn't come naturally to me."

Michael's project hit the stores in 1990

with an enigmatic [music] title MCMXC

AD, which in Roman numerals simply means

its [music] year of release. The album

booklet featured no photos. Sandra, the

project's [music] female voice, was not

even credited, and Michael used the

pseudonym Curly MC. What seemed like a

risky combination, Gregorian chants, pop

beats, and sultry whispers, became a

worldwide sensation. [music]

>> [music]

>> Driven by explosive success of the song

Sadness Part 1, the album sold more than

14 million copies and reached number one

[music] in 24 countries. The enigmatic

project further popularized the new age

genre in the mainstream, but the mystery

surrounding who was behind the project

did not last long. The end of the

anonymity came through the courts.

Michael [music] made a classic mistake.

He assumed that the centuries-old sheet

music meant that the audio recordings

[music] were free to use. Without

permission, he sampled 1976 recordings

by [music] the prestigious German choir

Capella Antiqua München. The lawsuit was

not just about [music] money, but also

about the moral offense it caused. The

religious group was outraged to hear

their sacred [music] voices mixed with

club beats and sultry whispers in

Sadness and Mea Culpa. The choir won,

received financial compensation, [music]

and demanded a formal written apology.

But even the scandal did not stop its

success. Then came the second album in

1993, [music] The Cross of Changes.

Michael expanded his horizons and

replaced [music] the monks with chants

from an indigenous group in Taiwan. The

result was another global mega-hit, the

unforgettable and nostalgic Return to

Innocence.

>> [music]

[music]

>> The music video for that song, famous

for showing a man's life in reverse,

helped make the song iconic. But because

of it, another lawsuit came knocking.

The lead vocals in the song belonged to

Difang and Igay, a couple of singers

from Taiwan's indigenous Amis community.

In the 1970s, they had recorded the

traditional jubilant drinking song for a

cultural archive.

Michael took that recording from a

French CD and used it in the song

without the couple's permission or

knowledge. Difang and Igay only

discovered that their voices were a

global success years later when Return

to Innocence played in the campaigns for

the 1996

Atlanta Olympics. They sued the producer

and the record label for copyright

infringement. The case was settled in

1999. The couple secured official

credit, received the royalties they were

owed, and were given [music] platinum

records.

The third chapter in Enigma's journey

came in 1996 with Le Roi Est Mort, Vive

Le Roi. On this record, Michael sought

to balance the elements of the first two

albums, bringing back Gregorian and

ethnic chants while giving the project a

distinct identity.

>> [music]

[music]

>> Speaking about his almost magical

creative process at the time, Michael

said, "Making Enigma records is like

practicing alchemy only in musical

terms. The listeners do not rack their

brain thinking [music] how, what, or

where does it come from? If they simply

say, 'What a beautiful song,' then my

work was done well." [music] From the

2000s onward, Enigma's sound began to

change. On the 2000 album

>> [music]

>> The Screen Behind the Mirror, Michael

used grand samples from composer Carl

Orff, best known for Carmina Burana.

>> [music]

[music]

>> On 2003's Voyageur and 2006's A

Posteriori, [music]

he almost completely abandoned ethnic

influences, delivering albums much more

focused on pure electronic and ambient

music.

>> [music]

[music]

>> Even with a more modern sound, Enigma

remained relevant. The seventh studio

album, Seven [music] Lives Many Faces

from 2008, even reached the top of the

new age charts [music] in the United

States.

>> [music]

>> After a long eight-year hiatus, during

which many fans thought the project had

come to an end, Michael returned in 2016

with The Fall of a Rebel Angel. On this

album, nostalgia hit hard. Michael

brought back the mystical atmosphere and

released Sadness Part 2, coming full

circle more [music] than 25 years after

the hit that changed electronic music

history.

>> [music]

>> But how does someone come full circle

after so much success and still remain

unknown to the general public? To

understand the man who sold 70 million

records while fleeing fame, we need to

go back to his roots once again.

>> [music]

>> The truth is that Michael Cretu never

wanted to be a celebrity. He was not

born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

He came from a communist country [music]

and had to leave his homeland to pursue

his dream. He describes his background

with humility. I am a stateless

immigrant who arrived in Germany with

only one suitcase [music] half filled

with sheet music. I feel like a deeply

southern European at heart, but with a

Prussian discipline. That Prussian

discipline [music]

translated into an almost unhealthy

level of perfectionism in the studio.

Michael would take on as many as seven

different roles in the [music] making of

an Enigma album. Producer, arranger,

sound engineer, singer, [music]

composer, lyricist, and keyboardist. He

preferred isolation to ensure that his

vision would not be diluted. But not

everyone was happy with his success.

[music] When Enigma broke through by

mixing Gregorian chants with provocative

beats, the Catholic Church in Germany

protested fiercely. [music] Michael, on

the other hand, never took that

criticism well and expressed his

frustration with both the institution

and the German mentality of the time in

a 2001 interview with Der Spiegel. I did

the church a great [music] favor. In the

United States, priests thanked me for

tripling the number of young people

[music] attending. But I cannot expect

that kind of open-mindedness from

calcified 85-year-olds. A friend [music]

says that the Catholic Church is the

oldest company in the world and he is

not wrong. He felt that in Germany,

success was often resented. [music]

Tired of what he called a culture of

envy, Michael decided that he would

[music] not raise his children in that

environment. That is why he retreated to

his mansion [music] studio in Ibiza.

Michael and Sandra built not only a

remarkable run of hits, but also a

family. They had twin sons together.

However, the couple who dominated

European pop for decades officially

divorced in 2008. Unlike many traumatic

divorces in the music world, the end of

their relationship was mature and

discreet. [music] They continued living

on the same island sake of their

children. When asked what his

relationship with his ex-wife is like

today, he was direct. We get along well.

We speak on the phone from time to time

and talk about the children. We have a

good relationship and there's no [music]

hostility between us. Today, Michael

lives a reclusive life. He rejects

[music] the label of stardom, avoids

unnecessary luxuries, and hates

ostentation. For him, money was only a

tool to buy a peaceful life. In the eyes

of the public, he may be a great

mystery, but for him,

>> [music]

>> the mission was always very clear. As he

put it perfectly in 2007 for the

newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, "I could

have stopped working [music] at 28. Why

didn't I? Because I love music, not

money. Music is my religion." And the

impact of Michael's religion taught the

industry how to create a new formula for

success. Mixing the mysticism of the

past with the [music] beats of the

future made room for other producers to

create their own mysteries in the 1990s.

[music]

And the biggest of those projects

replaced Gregorian monks with an epic

[music] medieval atmosphere, heavy rock

guitars, and a choir singing in an

imaginary language, taking over the

world with the unforgettable hit [music]

Amen. Yes, I am talking about the

project Era. There's already a full

[music] video about it here on the

channel and I'll leave the link in the

pinned comment. Now tell me, did you

already know the story behind [music]

the Enigma project? Let me know in the

comments and don't forget to like,

subscribe, and stick around because I'll

be back very soon with another great

story from the world of music.