Magic Christmas with The Royal Danish Embassy in Bucharest and JYSK

It has become a tradition for the Royal Danish Embassy in Bucharest to offer a surprise musical Christmas gift. With the support of JYSK, the Royal Danish Embassy released a new music video for the “Christmas With You“ song.

The lyrics of the 2020 song version are in Romanian and were written by the Embassy’s staff. They reflect the new context we are living in, generated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The song features the vocals of the Embassy’s staff, joined this year by three Magic volunteers and colleagues from JYSK Romania - Alex Bratu, Country Manager, and Iraida Paiuc, Sales and Marketing Manager.

CHARITY VIDEO

It is not only a joyful surprise, but also a charity initative, as this is a charity video for the benefit of Asociația Magic (Magic Association), a Romanian NGO which helps children diagnosed with cancer.

„ When we did the first version of “Christmas with you” in 2018, we were looking for ways to support the important work that Asociația Magic does for children suffering from cancer, and for their families. We did it again in 2019 and this is still our aim in 2020. Due to the pandemic, Asociația Magic had to cancel their very helpful summer camps this year. With the song and the video we hope to raise money for them to be able to compensate and do even more for the children in 2021", says Ambassador Søren Jensen.

See the music video below:

Iraida Paiuc, Sales and Marketing Manager, was happy to join the project and use her passion for singing for a good cause.

“I really appreciate the work done by Magic Home and I think they put their hart and soul into their projects, to help those children who are suffering. I also feel very close to the staff of the Royal Danish Embassy. They are beautiful, sincere and good people and I always enjoy meeting with them. I was honoured to represent JYSK in this Christmas song”, says Iraida Paiuc.

FAR AWAY FROM THE LOVED ONES

The lyrics of the new song are in Romanian and were written by the Embassy’s staff. They reflect the new context we are living in, generated by the coronavirus pandemic. We see the protagonists connecting online, trying to share the joy of Winter holidays, despite not being able to spend the holidays together. Some are in the office, some work from home, next to their child or their cat, others are shopping or working, but each of them thinks about the others. They remember past holidays, when they were together next to the Christmas tree and were laughing together.   

The music and original English lyrics were composed by Ambassador Søren Jensen, who talked about the song’s concept:

“The song itself is about not being with the ones you love for Christmas. This is something experienced by many people who are ill and are in hospital or who perhaps work abroad and are not able to make it home for the holidays, as many Romanians might do. This year, because of the COVID restrictions, many more will not be able to be with their loved ones, or at least not as many as would otherwise be able to do so. So the song has been given a new meaning in 2020. The Embassy staff decided that we did the song in Romanian this year. Together, they wrote new lyrics that reflected life and all its frustrations during the COVID restrictions. And we got our good friends from Jysk and Asociația Magic to help sing the song. I like the new version. I think the Romanian lyrics and the new video give the song new life. I am very grateful to JYSK Romania for helping to make it all possible".

 Christmas this year will also be different for Iraida, but she is hopeful that things will get back to normal soon.

“For me, Christmas is about spending time with my family. When I was a child, I spent my Winter holidays in my grandparents house, in the mountains. We would sing Christmas carols, we would visit our relatives and talk about what we did. I will also spend Christmas this year with my family, but this time just with my husband and my two boys. But, just as the song says, next year will be different. And I will not wait until next Christmas, I hope that after the vaccination we will go back to being oursevles, to go to parties, to visit friends and to hug them. And social distancing will be just a story, with good and bad parts, just as any story“, says Iraida. 

A FUN EXPERIENCE

For Iraida, the recording sessions and the filming were new experiences, even tough she has been singing all her life. The most interesting part was the the rehearsal, which took place on WhatsApp. All the participants tried to coordinate, and doing this virtually made things both awkward and funny. Everyone put their heart and soul into the song and the result is great.