We're going way back with this one. Phoenix was formed under the name Sfinţii (The Saints) in 1962, during the time when the Communist regime was still in power, and has survived until this day, having made music for almost fifty years. The Communist government forced the band to change their name due to the fact that religion was banned and the name of the band was seen as connected to religion, and the government also highly censored the band's music, as it did with any music coming out, until 1989 when the regime was overthrown. The band wasn't especially popular in the 60s, but it became extremely popular in the 70s when it pioneered a new style of Romanian music: Ethno Rock. The band combined the rock and roll sound it developed in the 60s with ethnic Romanian music to form a style of music that the people fell in love with. Unfortunately, with the Communist government controlling almost every aspect of their music, it was hard for them to do much in Romania, many of their releases containing only a couple of tracks because the rest of the tracks were censored by the government. In the 80s, all but one of the then current band members escaped the country hidden inside their Marshall speakers. They made it to Germany, where they went their separate ways and started German- and English-singing bands that didn't garner much success. After the revolution in '89 and the overthrow of the Communist government, the band returned to Romania where they made a modest comeback, impacted by the strained relationships between the members. During the 90s, they only released compilations of their old tracks with very little new material and they didn't release a new album until the turn of the century. They still tour, but ever since the move to Germany, the band has only been in its classic line-up once, which was when they released a new album in 2005. Andrii Popa, first performed live in 1973, was one of their most popular songs, a true classic that has survived the years and has been covered by many artists. The song is based off of a poem of the same name written in 1843 by Vasile Alecsandri, written about the journey of Andrii Popa, an actual person who was a haiduc (outlaw) in Romania.