Smiley, Alex Velea, and Connect-R, three of the most important and enduring artists in Romania, kick off a landmark year for their careers and the Romanian music industry with the release of “Nu mă ierta”, a song with a strong emotional impact, the first from an album they have created together. This album will be revealed, track by track, over the coming months.

After a friendship spanning over 20 years, hundreds of composed songs, signature hits, and undeniable musical careers, Smiley, Alex Velea, and Connect-R, three of the heavyweights in Romanian music, are pooling their creativity, compatibility, vision, life stories, and talent in a joint album. They have been composing, working, recording, and dreaming up this album for over a year. “This is an event project for us and a premiere for Romanian music because all three of us bring everything we’ve accumulated and felt in over 20 years of friendship, compositions, and careers to every song on this album. We have an incredible creative compatibility, which we felt in the studio, in every pore of our skin and every cell of our body this year as we composed and created this album together, and I hope it transmits just as intensely to those who will listen and feel it. For me, the project with Velea and Connect-R is like an escape into a space of intense experiences and boyish fun like in the craziest years of my life, but with the mind and soul of today, it’s a continuous joy and madness that I missed. We are three friends, we are different, we each master our genre, values, and career, but music is one and it brings us together in this once-in-a-lifetime project,” Smiley tells us.

The three artists will dedicate the next period of their careers to launching this joint project in which each of them believes, identifies, expresses, and shows themselves in the most sincere, current, and profound light.

“We are like brothers! We’ve known each other for years, crossed paths on so many stages, stayed in the same studios, and seen each other’s pains and joys. There has always been mutual respect, but also real chemistry that didn’t need much explanation. Professionally, we’ve united in various collaborations over the years, but it always felt like there was more to say. And now… we’ve gathered to say EVERYTHING. Even though it’s a trio, each of us puts in 100%. It’s like having 3 albums in one, but better mixed. Each song will have pieces of Velea, Smiley, Connect-R, but all naturally intertwined, without forcing. People will receive energy, message, party, emotion, everything we offered solo, but to the third power. Smiley is the warm soul, the pure positive, the man who makes you see the light even when it’s foggy. He’s mega creative, versatile, and has an incredible sense of melody. Connect-R is the pure Romanian vibe, but with international DNA. Spiritual, deep, yet mega entertaining. He’s an urban poet. Me? I’m the spice! 🔥 I’m the energy, I’m the rhythm, I’m the mix of street with soul. I come with color, intensity, a bit of beautiful madness. Together? We’re like the perfect cocktail—each brings something different, but it blends harmoniously,” says Alex Velea.

“‘Nu mă ierta’, the song with which the extensive project of the three artist friends begins to tell its public story, is drawn from an episode experienced by Connect-R and transformed by them all into music.

“All the songs we’ve worked on in this project are pieces of us, are lived experiences that have cut from our souls and built life lessons and the foundation for what we are today. The song ‘Nu mă ierta’ still hurts, somehow. It turned out incredibly well, but besides that, it expresses a full and intense episode from my life, where I loved, hurt, and received forgiveness which perhaps I did not deserve. I call it the ‘MEDICINE SONG,’ often it’s hard for us to say what we really feel, but music comes, takes the masks off, and allows us to be vulnerable. ‘Nu mă ierta’ is, in my view, the most beautiful SORRY from a self-aware man, it’s about truth and sincerity. Let’s hear and feel good!”, tells us Connect-R.

With music and lyrics composed by Smiley, Alex Velea, and Connect-R, “Nu mă ierta” features musical production signed by Șerban Cazan, mix&master by Lucian Nagy, directed by Iulian Moga, with executive producer Alexandru Nagy and creative producer Ramon Militaru.