Synopsis

Haiducii's video unfolds inside a stylish hotel, where a restless man searches through a room and its adjoining hallway. From another room, Haiducii watches him through a bank of surveillance monitors while performing the song in a series of glamorous outfits. The man eventually notices the hidden camera and follows the clues to her room, but arrives too late. He finds only more recorded images of Haiducii leaving the hotel in a striking red fur ensemble, ending the chase on an elusive note.

Factoids & Trivia

• Haiducii initially opposed recording "Dragostea din tei," but her label Universo encouraged her to make the cover.

• The cover was produced and mixed by Max Minoia at MM Studio in Rome.

• Italian singer Vittorio Centrone provided the male vocal parts, including the recognizable "Ma-ia-hii, Ma-ia-huu" refrain, although he was not prominently credited on the release.

• The video uses recurring four-way split screens to connect Haiducii's performance with the surveillance-camera storyline.

• Haiducii's stage name was inspired by the song's reference to "haiduci," a Romanian term commonly translated as outlaws or bandits.

• Released during the 2004 wave of European interest in the song, Haiducii's version reached No. 1 in Italy and later topped the charts in Austria and Sweden.

• The cover competed directly with O-Zone's original in several European markets, making the song unusual in having two successful versions circulating at the same time.

• The video's hotel setting and voyeuristic camera motif give the dance track a lightly cinematic chase narrative without relying on a conventional romantic storyline.