THE LAST HOUR Artan, the lead singer of the band Partizan and the founder of Timpuri Noi, has died. Adrian Pleșca was 64 years old

The well-known vocal soloist Artan, real name Adrian Pleșca, from the band Partizan, passed away on Tuesday, December 2, a member of the rock band confirmed to HotNews this evening.

The information, originally published by bucurestifm.ro., was also confirmed by Alin Dinca, the lead singer of the Trooper band.

“Smooth road… Pleșca Adrian. The light bulb went out,” wrote Dinca, in a message published on his Facebook page, alongside a photo of Artan in his youth.

And Radio Guerrilla posted a similar message on Facebook. “Good day, Adrian “Artan” Pleșca! Thank you”, was the message published by the radio station.

Rock concert promoter MetalHead also had a short message for the late artist.

Adrian Pleșca was 64 years old, the artist being born in 1961.

“Extremely well-known voice of Romanian rock, Artan was not only the founder of the bands Timpuri Noi and Partizan, but also active in the Radio Romania Choir, as the artist said on May 9, 2025”, writes bucurestifm.ro.

Among his best known songs are Perfect (1992) and Adeline (1998).

At the same time, the most famous song from Partizan is “Fata mea” (2002).

Recent scandal

Recently, the artist was involved in an assault scandal. The mother of an 18-year-old girl claimed that Artan also tried to kiss her daughter, without consent, in the nJoy club, in Bucharest, on October 20.

Contacted at that time by HotNews, Adrian Pleșca admitted that he kissed a “young and pretty girl”, reasoning that “I saw her more like this, more thoughtful”.

The Capital Police later announced that it had reported itself, after the mother of that young woman claimed, in an internet post that went viral on the internet, that the artist “harassed” her daughter, trying to forcefully kiss her, after which he would have done the same with another young woman.

The police mentioned that no criminal complaint has been filed and there is no direct notification from the people involved, encouraging potential victims to contact the authorities.

The members of the Partizan band, with whom Adrian Pleşca has collaborated for over 15 years, said at the time that they had never witnessed such behavior on the part of Artan, but the situation created could have been related to possible health problems that appeared recently, which affected his discernment. They considered the case to be an isolated one and conveyed that they distance themselves from “any form of violence, discrimination or disrespectful behavior”.

“In such situations, the first voice that must be listened to is always that of the affected people. In addition, Artan admitted responsibility for the consequences of what happened, initially in a clumsy way, through the media, and later publicly apologized in a video message. The most important thing now is how the affected people feel, what can be done to support them and how we can contribute to repairing the bad product”, wrote, on October 23, on Facebook, the members of the Partizan band.

“In all these years, in numerous contexts and places, I have never witnessed such behavior on his part. I have always interacted with people before and after concerts, sometimes in a social context where alcohol was consumed, without similar incidents. We firmly distance ourselves from any form of violence, discrimination or disrespectful behavior. At the same time, we believe that the situation created is related to possible health problems that have appeared recently, which affected Artan's discernment. However, this does not excuse his behavior and does not diminish the impact on those affected by the event”, the band members also conveyed.

They stated that they do not accept “degrading or simplifying labels”, but they do not minimize the facts either.

“In all our work together, we have not encountered any sexual or aggressive behavior with him, which makes this incident completely atypical and worrying. But the responsibility for this gesture belongs to him entirely. We apologize publicly, on behalf of the band, to the affected people and to the public. We are open to dialogue and to any form of moral reparation possible. We want such situations to not happen again,” the rock band said at the time.