Interview With Michael Cretu For SPIEGEL-ONLINE



LSD Hits LSD Remix

The interview was recorded by Stéfan Picker-Dressel for Spiegel-Online


With worldwide record sales of more than 30 million albums, musician and producer Michael Cretu is one of the most internationally successful German artists. However, the 44-year old Cretu does not feel respected. The musician spoke with SPIEGEL-ONLINE about envy, jealousy, appreciation, the singer Heino and the reason why he would never want to live in Germany again.

Interviewer: Mr. Cretu, you have sold more than 30 million records worldwide. How many copies do you think will be added to that number with the recently published "Greatest Hits"- and "Remix Collection" CDs of your sacred pop project Enigma?
Michael Cretu: How would I know? And it doesn’t interest me either. Everybody assumes that I am some kind of cleverest of guys and that I would never do anything that is not totally over calculated. But I could never make music that way! I am a full-blooded musician, passion is my profession. I am like some of those soccer players who still are still playing at the age of 39.

Interviewer: When your first Enigma album appeared in 1990, protests were coming from the side of the Church in Germany.
Michael Cretu: Oh, Germany... I sure would like to know what the problem is that this country has with people who are successful. In other countries like America I was welcomed with open arms. Over there, there were priests who came to me and thanked me for tripling the number of young churchgoers. I have done the Church a great favor with my albums. But one has to be quite a bit progressive inside his head, and that is something that I can not expect from those old, "calcified" 85-year old men. The Church doesn’t really interest me.

Interviewer: With saying this you will surely offend certain people.
Michael Cretu: I am more religious than some people who go to church every Sunday or go on pilgrimages. But I am not choosing sides here. Besides, I don’t like the "institutionalizing" of the Church anyway. A friend of mine says that the catholic Church is the oldest Ltd. in the world. He is not entirely wrong. Which company has existed for over 2000 years?

Interviewer: Considering the critique on Enigma, it is easy to say the Germans are people who are full of envy and who always look for quarrels.
Michael Cretu: That is just the nature of man; he always has to nag about other people. Why can’t they be glad when others are successful? Mankind always judges much too quickly over others without having any background information. That is a fundamental evil which we have to unlearn. I have always been a dissident, a positive rebel. A peaceful anarchist.

Interviewer: Talk about anarchism – music too is a kind of rebellion. Do you want to rebel against something with Enigma?
Michael Cretu: No. I want to entertain people and not to hurt anybody with my music. Music is the confession of my soul, of my spirit, if you want. I don’t want to reprimand anyone, I don’t want to point a finger at anybody, I am much too childlike inside to do that. Rebellion is something for ignorant people.

Interviewer: You are – sales numbers in mind – the most internationally successful German artist. Does that surprise you?
Michael Cretu: No. After all, I make international music. Who wants to hear (German) singers like Westernhagen or Grönemeyer abroad? Nobody understands them there. I on the other hand am multilingual, a global player. I can be understood anywhere. For that, people in Germany should show a little more respect for me. Take for example the German singer Heino. He would not be my choice, and his style of music is totally and completely different from mine. But I have to respect him because in his style of music, he sells more records than 500 others combined. So, he must have something special that others don’t have. That is exactly what I desire for myself and my work. Just respect.

Interviewer: So people don’t respect you as you would like them to.
Michael Cretu: No, they don’t. I still have to explain myself and my work to others. That’s the reason why I don’t live here in Germany anymore. I just couldn’t. On Ibiza, my home, the sun always shines anyway, I and my family feel very comfortable there. When I see how things are in the German schools, then I never wish to have my children to go there. On Ibiza, they go to school in an old, renovated farm house, there is plenty of clean air, they are doing well there. Germany? No thank you.

Interviewer: If one would compare you and your work to a German soccer team, which one would you like to be?
Michael Cretu: Then there is only one: Bayern Munich. Team with style, good buildup, excellent coach, successful management. Extremely well managed and absolutely comparable to me and my Enigma work. Just like the "Bayern", I am only satisfied with absolute perfection.

Interviewer: Something completely different. You are, just like your famous and successful German musical colleague Peter Maffay, Romanian from birth. Could you imagine working together with him?
Michael Cretu: Are you trying to scr*w me? A little more respect, please.

Supplied and translated by Stargazer from the Enigmamusic.com message board

Enigma's Love Sensuality Devotion "The Greatest Hits" and "The Remix Collection" on Virgin Records, released 8 October, 2001