There are artists who live through their music. And then there is Loredana. A force of nature who, for over four decades, has refused to be anything other than herself on stage, in front of cameras, on the street, in life.
When you talk to Loredana Groza, the first thing that strikes you is not her charm though it is undeniable. It is the clarity. An almost insolent clarity, forged through years of instinctive decisions fully owned. There is no hesitation in her voice when she tells you she refused compromise at 14, on the stage of her first television appearance.
There is no bitter nostalgia there is only a woman who knows exactly who she is and what it cost to remain so.
Loredana is, in every sense of the word, a living editorial phenomenon. Her style does not follow fashion cycles it traverses them, absorbs them and transcends them. From the stage dresses that defined Romanian pop aesthetics in the ’90s to her current looks, always surprising, there is a common thread: instinct. Not calculation, not an image consultant, not an algorithm. Pure instinct, which whispered to her that fashion and music are not two worlds, but one.
What is fascinating about Loredana is that her relevance cannot be explained by continuous reinvention that exhausting mechanism adopted by so many artists frightened by the passage of time.
She did not reinvent herself. She deepened. She chose to remain faithful to an inner truth which, it turns out, is ageless. The public felt this generation after generation and responded accordingly.
In the exclusive interview granted to Touch Magazine, Loredana speaks about price and reward, about misogyny and courage, about the skirt from Bergdorf Goodman and about what it means to be the best on your street. This is not an interview about fashion. It is an interview about freedom.
1. Was there a moment in your career when you felt you had to choose between who you are and who the industry wanted you to be?
There were certainly moments like this, when fashion and trends somehow imposed their ideas. But I always preferred, at any risk, to do what I feel, regardless of the expectations others had of me. I always believed that my instinct, my intuition are the most important things regardless of trends, regardless of fashion, regardless of the moment.
2. Has your style evolved alongside your music, or the other way around? Who leads who?
I don’t believe fashion exists separately from music. I believe it is a way of expressing yourself. When you say music, you already say fashion too, because music belongs to a time in space, belongs to a moment. It is a moment when you want to release a song because you want to say something, you have a message to convey. And then, of course, it comes dressed in the colours of the moment because fashion is music and music is fashion. I want that when I release a song, I can listen to it 20 years later and it still feels as fresh as the moment I launched it. Just like a garment you don’t want to leave gathering dust in the wardrobe because you wore it once, it was fashionable then, and afterwards it’s totally passé. I think that’s the idea: to find those timeless pieces that work together, both musically and in terms of fashion.
3. What does your morning look like before a show? What do you wear when nobody’s watching?
I am an extremely practical person. I don’t like to sit around the house all dressed up with feathered mules, like a Hollywood diva from the ’30s. I like to wear things made from natural materials cashmere, cotton, silk in summer. The finest and purest. I love natural materials and at home I want to feel like I’m wrapped in cotton wool. (laughs)
4. Have you ever worn something that made you feel completely wrong and gone on stage anyway?
Yes. The first time I appeared on television. My very first appearance ever was at 14, on Steaua fără nume. And because I was about two years under the age threshold, they wanted to forcibly age me. They dressed me in a “mumsy” dress, put glasses with a black frame on me something horrifying and quite heavy makeup, which was somehow meant to give me the air of a little woman, not a teenager. I was extremely upset, because I didn’t like myself at all in that situation. As a result, I didn’t tell anyone at school, in my group of friends, or the neighbours, that I would be appearing on television because I didn’t want anyone to see me looking like that. I promised myself then that it would be the last time I would allow anyone to impose on me how to dress, how to do my makeup and what to say. And despite all that… I won. At the second stage, when I arrived in Bucharest to film, I told them from the start: “I play by my own rules. You can send me home, but I’m not making any more compromises.”
5. The Romanian music industry and fashion why don’t they talk to each other more?
I think there is a certain distance. It always seemed to me that the world of fashion and the world of music are viewed as two separate worlds. And I don’t think they should be. At my first appearances, before the Revolution, I remember singing at a fashion show in Bucharest which was a major event, very few things like this were happening. It was an extremely revolutionary idea for that moment. I later saw that many designers abroad invited artists to sing during their shows at Victoria’s Secret, for instance. But back then, in ’88, to see something like this was absolutely unique. It was the moment when fashion met music. I had just released my first album, and Radu Vișan was the creator who had this idea and invited me to appear on the runway, singing throughout the presentation, alongside all the models. Among the mannequins as they were called at the time were Cătălin Botezatu, Janine, the supermodels of that period.
6. Is there a look of yours that people criticised and that you still love?
I’m not interested in what people say. Let them talk what does it matter. I’m honoured when I see people following my lead, trying to copy me. I’m flattered when people draw inspiration from me. They try to copy me. After all, the most fierce critics are in fact the biggest fans. 😜
7. At what age did you stop dressing for other people?
I was always in the avant-garde, I set the tone. I took risks, as some would say, because I chose to be different I didn’t go “on trend”. (smiles) I was and still am a rebel child. But somehow, I dress both for others and for myself because you want to be admired, you want to be loved. It is our irrepressible inner desire. At least mine. I wanted to be noticed, to be remarked upon perhaps by a boy I liked, or by some girls who thought they were superior, while I was the little girl with two plaits, somewhere in the crowd. You always want to show that you are more than some people around you believe. And I’m glad that I somehow managed to be “the best on my street”, so to speak. Because ultimately that is everyone’s desire to show the people on your street. It doesn’t matter that there are a million strangers who love you. What matters is that the ones on your street know it first.
8. Which piece in your wardrobe has the best story?
Oh, I don’t know, there are so many stories with my wardrobe. I also wrote about it in one of my books, in Sexting. It is a story from when I was in New York, many years ago. I had seen a skirt on someone in the street and said: “Wow, where is that skirt from? I have to have it!” The internet didn’t exist as it does today you couldn’t find things so easily. And I remember that, eventually, I found that skirt at Bergdorf Goodman. It wasn’t my size, I bought it larger, but I wanted it to be my skirt. So I can do shocking things for something I like. Many times I bought shoes two sizes too large because I liked them so much even though I never wore them. That’s why I say that, for certain things that catch my eye, I’m capable of doing almost anything. (laughs)
9. If you could change one thing about how women are perceived in Romanian showbiz, what would it be?
It’s very interesting how this perception has evolved. In the ’80s, when I started singing, being a singer was a profession that made people raise their eyebrows a little. My parents, acquaintances: “A singer? What kind of profession is that? Those are loose women, like actresses.” It seemed something extremely frivolous. Over time, the perception changed. Being a girl, and very young when I went out into the world, my family always told me: “Be careful not to let anyone fool you.” I felt like Pinocchio going out into the world and being tricked by all sorts of characters along the way. In a way, on a different scale, it can be like that. It is a world full of temptations, full of attractions, a glittering world and women are often seen as certain victims, especially if they are young and inexperienced. I had to be diplomatic, I had to be a little bit of a man, to be approachable but also keep my distance. And above all there is in Romanian society this tendency of misogyny that I felt even during the periods when I was a mentor on talent shows. When votes were cast, they preferred to vote for the boys rather than the girls. It is easier to be a man in this world. You are less scrutinised and criticised. As a woman, you have to be perfect, no matter what. Even if you gave birth a month ago, even if you have a difficult family situation it doesn’t matter, you have no excuse. You have to be slim, without cellulite, always young, always happy, always in shape. You have to be perfect. Which, sometimes, can be extremely difficult. We are human too we are not just women, we are human beings, first and foremost.
10. What does being relevant mean to you in 2026? Does it even matter?
I think it’s important to be relevant in any year. It’s equally difficult in 2000, in 1988, and in 2026. I have had this extraordinary chance that the public loves me, holds me close and generation after generation comes to my concerts, buys my records, stands by me in every moment. I have felt this unconditional love. We grew together, we evolved together. I always tried never to disappoint them. I always gave everything, I gave of myself. They felt that I do it with all my heart and that I don’t do it for money, not for glory, but simply because I love to sing madly. I make no discrimination of any kind. I sing for the poor, for the rich, for simple people, for presidents, I sing at weddings, I sing at stadiums, I sing wherever I am wanted and loved! I am deeply grateful to my fans everywhere! It is thanks to them that I am here! And I think the fact that I am here in 2026 too, at the centre of the stage, in the spotlight for me that is the most beautiful thing, because I am still living my dream. And what could be more wonderful than that?
Loredana Groza doesn’t need a finale. She has a new beginning.
On April 28th she releases În ochii tăi a new song and music video that promises to be, like everything she does, unforgettable. And on November 7th, Sala Palatului becomes the stage for a unique event: Libertate. A concert you will never be able to relive. A show that exists only once. Because Loredana doesn’t repeat herself. She creates.
An editorial is always a team effort. Thank you to everyone
Editor-In-Chief: @irinasopcu
Photographer: @vladandrei_
Styling: @madaliciousss
Assistant Styling: @aandrasin
Makeup: @ema_uta
Hair: @bassam_dabbas
