Six years ago, the image of famous singer Alexandra Stan beaten and bruised in the hospital made the headlines in Romania and around the world. The artist talked to Stirileprotv.ro about how she became a victim and how she recovered after that dark episode in her life.

Alexandra Stan, now 30, was discovered by two young Romanian talent agents in her hometown Constanta, in 2009. In just two years, young Alexandra became one of the most popular Romanian singers abroad, with her hit single Mr. Saxobeat. From the outside, her career looked like a dream for every girl in Romania, with concerts abroad alongside famous international artists such as Rihanna.

However, life behind the scenes was not as rosy, Alexandra recalls. She made enough money to help her family, but she was still underpaid, with most of the revenues from her performances going to her producers. When her father said she should make more money, her agents banned him from staying by the stage at her concerts.

Moreover, the agents didn’t want to pay for a stylist for her concerts. “I was on the market for two years, had songs and concerts and I wanted to get a stylist for my concerts. They wouldn’t pay for it because <<can’t you dress yourself?>>” she recalls. They also fired the original saxophone player with whom she performed in Mr. Saxobeat after he asked for a pay raise and replaced him with a driver who only mimed playing the saxophone. “That’s how we were at the height of our success, with Mike the driver doing playback on the saxophone,” Alexandra says.

“I took my contract and went to see a lawyer. My contract said that I didn’t have the right to get a lawyer and that I had to ask them if I wanted one. This was one of the arguments that allowed us to cancel the contract with them because it was inhuman. They started to threaten me that they would keep me at home, that I wouldn’t be able to do anything, that they would not allow me to sing my songs and that I would starve to death. They made hundreds of thousands of euro and didn’t even buy me a microphone,” Alexandra told Stirileprotv.ro.

The whole situation escalated into one of her agents beating her as he was driving her home one evening, in June 2013. “I only remember that I felt like a beaten dog and I tried to run, I think he was doing 80 (kmph) and I pulled the steering wheel and tried to pull the break to get out of the car because I was already covered in blood. I was on the passenger’s seat, and he was still hitting me with his fist. He stopped the car and I ran in the middle of the street,” Alexandra recalls.

A police crew stopped and helped her out of this situation. Alexandra later pressed charges against her agent and took him to court, and, in the end, he received a 7-month suspended sentence.

Alexandra recalls that, after the aggression, she also had to cope with negative comments as many people said she deserved what happened to her. However, she managed to recover after therapy and look back at those moments with some sort of detachment. She also continued her music career and is now working on a new album.

Her story is part of a campaign initiated by Stirileprotv.ro, called Woman as a prey, which aims to raise awareness about violence against women, which is still a big social problem in Romania.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Alexandra Stan Facebook page)