Famous Dutch violinist Andre Rieu was awarded the Bucharest honorary ambassador title by the Romanian capital’s new interim mayor Razvan Sava. Rieu, 66, said he fell in love with the Romanian people and that he was honored by this award.

“I’ve travelled the whole world, but the way people welcomed me here from the first moment was just incredible. I’ve performed in Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. I always ask the public where they come from and, in general, they come from all over the world. But in these cities, half of the spectators were from Romania,” Rieu said, explaining what determined him to include Bucharest in his international tour.

He also said that his team had warned him that he would go broke if he brought all the equipment necessary for a concert to Romania, but that he decided to do it anyway.

“I believed in the Romanian public and I knew this was going to be a success. These were the best seven concerts I’ve had in my life. And I’m not saying this just because I am in Bucharest. Romanians have sent me an incredible warmth every time I came here,” Rieu added.

The famous violinist, known as the King of Waltz, had seven concerts in Bucharest’s Constitution Square, in front of the Parliament’s Palace, in June and July this year. The tickets for his first three concerts sold in record time, which determined him to announce more performances. A total of 84,000 people went to see him perform.

He made a DVD of his concerts in Romania, which he officially launched on Friday, November 27, in Bucharest. He said he would donate all the money from the DVD sales to the victims of the Colectiv club tragedy, which killed 60 people and left over 150 injured.

Andre Rieu also said that he would return to Romania for a concert in June 2016, but didn’t mention the exact date.

Born in Maastricht, in the Netherlands, Andre Rieu is one of the best-selling musicians in the world. He made classic music accessible to millions of people with his theatrical performances, which also brought him critics from the genre’s puritans.

Each year, Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra, and many international guest artists have 100 concerts all over the world that gather over one million spectators. His tours have entered the Billboard’s Top 10 each year starting 2004.

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editor@romania-insider.com