The creator of the musical project «Enigma,» Michael Cretu, celebrated his 69th birthday today in a strange way: by blocking Sandra’s most popular YouTube channel.
The channel named Sandra (previously available at: https://www.youtube.com/@sandra-cretu) held the top spot in Russian search engine results for the query «Sandra.» It had been growing since 2016 and was even ranked higher than the singer’s official pages on other popular platforms. Since YouTube was slowed down in Russia, the channel’s position changed, but it did not lose popularity. Videos on the channel had up to 20 million views each, and collectively garnered up to 2 million new views monthly. Most of the audience watched the clips without subscribing, but nearly 200,000 regular subscribers chose to add the channel to their official subscription list. The total number of views on the channel reached several hundred million over its entire lifespan.
The channel published popular videos of singer Sandra from the 90s in high quality, as well as rare television footage that aired on TV channels across Europe: Germany, France, Britain, England, etc. In other words, it was a unique project created by Russian fans of the singer, who searched for rare recordings worldwide and bought unique footage from private collections of fans around the globe.
Copyrights for the videos made publicly available were not violated. YouTube’s tools automatically recognize video and audio content, redirecting all revenue to the actual rights holders. Over its 10-year existence, this fan channel did not receive a single kopeck from YouTube, while thousands of dollars were transferred monthly to the rights holders.
However, everything changed in May 2026, when the channel received a «strike» from a user named Michael Cretu, who provided the official email address: michaelcretuvevo@gmail.com. The coincidence of the claimant’s name and the email suggests that the complaint was filed by the very same Michael Cretu – the composer of Enigma project melodies, who was Sandra’s husband until 2007. The couple married on January 7, 1988; twins Nikita and Sebastian were born in 1995; by 2006, the relationship had broken down (Sandra did not participate in the new Enigma album «A Posteriori,» and Cretu had nothing to do with Sandra’s later albums). Within a year, the couple officially divorced.
According to available information, since then, the aging composer has focused on his own projects, while the fuller-figured Sandra returned to the big stage, beginning collaborations with new composers. However, the past 19 years, it seems, have not soothed the old man, who decided to take revenge on his ex-wife in such an «ungentlemanly» way (either personally or through a representative).
Michael Cretu did not stop at one strike: over several days, he sent 5 complaints for «copyright infringement» to the YouTube video hosting service. To the indignation of the channel’s creators, these «strikes» were accepted by the service, first leading to the removal of videos, and then to the automatic deletion of the entire channel. Any attempts by the Sandra channel creators to contact the complainant were unsuccessful; he «played silent.»
On the channel @sandra-cretu, fans from around the world left enthusiastic comments for their beloved singer, declared their love, sent virtual roses and kisses. Hundreds of thousands of people of different ages recalled their childhood and youth, warmly interacted with each other, and shared stories of dancing to these melodies. Some played this music at their weddings and birthdays, while others shed tears alone to the romantic melodies, leaving comments under the videos.
The fan project grew and lived its own life until it was destroyed by «Michael Cretu.»
Some fans of the singer reacted quite sharply to the channel’s removal, suggesting that «the elderly Misha Cretinov suffers from complete loneliness, abandoned by his wife and children, therefore he is jealous of Sandra, who left him and is having affairs with younger men.» Other visitors to the closed chat wrote that «greedy Cretu decided to take away Sandra’s YouTube income.» There could be many theories as to why Michael Cretu acted so cruelly and heartlessly towards his ex-wife. But it’s not that simple!
The editorial team obtained one of the letters (the final letter from the administrators of the blocked Sandra YouTube channel), which they tried to send to the complainant. Here is its full text.
«Hello, Michael Cretu.
Since March 3, 2026, you have sent 5 requests to YouTube to remove videos posted on the ‘Sandra’ channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sandra-cretu, citing copyright infringement. According to your claim, 5 music videos posted on the channel violated your copyrights.
The complaints were sent on: 03/06/26; 08/06/26; 08/06/26; 10/06/26; 12/06/26; 12/06/26.
Unfortunately, we have no official legal confirmation that you actually hold the copyrights to the specified videos, rather than intentionally filing complaints to harm our channel.
We inform you that this channel was created by a community of fans of singer Sandra and admirers of composer Michael Cretu’s work. The channel creators never claimed rights to the posted content, aiming to promote the beloved singer’s work on the Internet and showcase favorite clips from 30 years ago. At the same time, the channel creators never used it for commercial purposes and had no access to revenue generated from this channel on YouTube. All copyright fees from advertising displayed on the videos of this channel were automatically transferred to the rights holders of the videos and musical compositions. The administrators never profited from the channel, maintaining it as a neutral and financially independent platform.
Fans from all over the world had the opportunity to watch music clips they had loved since childhood and left hundreds of thousands of positive comments on each video, declaring their love for singer Sandra and thanking composer Michael Cretu for the wonderful melodies. The channel https://www.youtube.com/@sandra-cretu was a place where fans worldwide could remember their younger days and thank the creative union of two people for the wonderful emotions.
With your content complaints filed through YouTube administrators, you didn’t just kill the channel; you killed the hearts of the fans.
On May 16, 2026, the ‘Sandra’ channel was removed from YouTube. Hundreds of thousands of declarations of love, bright emotions, tears of joy from encountering beloved art were forever deleted. The positive emotions of millions of people were thrown into the trash. Rejoice. You have caused evil to millions of fans. You have harmed a team of loving people who worked for free to develop the Sandra brand. If your goal was to hurt the singer’s fans worldwide, to trample the feelings of loving people – you have achieved your goal 100%.
You have wrought evil upon singer Sandra. You have harmed YouTube visitors, Sandra fans and admirers, Michael Cretu fans and admirers, and music lovers in general.
But despite the evil you have done, we apologize if we have offended you in any way. Unfortunately, the channel administrators rarely check the mailbox and missed your complaints and messages from YouTube. We are aware of the consequences of copyright infringement in the form of ‘strikes’ and would have immediately removed the specified videos from the channel, but we did not see them in time. Only 7 days are given to remove the videos, which we missed. For this reason, not only the videos and the entire Sandra channel were removed, but also many other YouTube channels linked to our account that never had any relation to the singer or her work.
Because of your actions, millions of completely innocent people have suffered, people who are asking: ‘Why did Michael Cretu (michaelcretuvevo@gmail.com) do this to us?’.
We ask you to withdraw the previously filed complaints in order to restore our account and get back our other channels.
We also ask permission to return the Sandra channel, which, like any art, no longer belongs to the authors, but to the admirers and fans. In case you actually hold the copyrights to the clips and believe that the Sandra channel should be removed – so be it (we never claimed rights to someone else’s content). But we ask you to provide the opportunity to get back our account, which was destroyed by your actions. If you are fighting for legal justice, then help us restore our rights to other content, 100% owned by us on YouTube. After all, you are for justice, aren’t you?
Sincerely, The Administrators of the Sandra Channel.
05/17/2026«.
The letter is quite frank, and one could speculate on how the famous composer would react, but, to the editorial team’s surprise, the story did not end with sending this letter to Cretu! Not only did the authors fail to receive a coherent response from the musician, but they couldn’t even send their message. Why? We will now explain from the editorial side.
Strange Circumstances
Having received information about the channel blocking, the editorial team of the «News of Russia» news agency tried to contact the complainant by sending an official request to his email asking for comment, but was surprised to find that the official email from which YouTube accepted the complaint simply does not exist! The mail server returned an error message.
«Address not found. The message was not delivered because the address michaelcretuvevo@gmail.com was not found or does not accept incoming mail. Received response: 550 5.1.1 The email account you tried to reach does not exist. Please check the recipient’s email address for typos or unnecessary spaces. For more information, follow the link.»
This results in an astonishing situation: either the video hosting service reacted to a complaint from a fake account and blocked the channel (and also deleted the owner’s account), or the complainant really is composer Michael Cretu, who deemed it necessary to hide his real email address.
In either case, the picture is extremely unflattering for the well-known video service. YouTube hosting blocks channels based on complaints filed from fake accounts! It turns out that any fraudster can pose as anyone and file a complaint with a guaranteed result of blocking an unwanted channel! As one Internet visitor stated: «In essence, YouTube has legalized information-terrorist activities directed not only against the Russian-speaking population but also against viewers worldwide. At the very least, this illegal activity has become widespread, judging by the number of channels the hosting service has blocked in recent years, regardless of the number of subscribers, which can number in the millions for individual projects. There is a complaint – they react thoughtlessly and soullessly, leaving millions of viewers abandoned. It is likely that the activities of this hostile service should be banned not only in Russia but also in all other countries.»
For its part, the editorial team of IA «News of Russia» congratulates Michael Cretu, a musician of Romanian origin whose creative career took place in Germany, on his birthday. Today, May 18, 2026, he celebrates his birthday. In proud loneliness, with a feeling of powerless anger and dreams of revenge against a woman – or in the company of cheerful friends and with a clear heart – it doesn’t matter. We wish the wonderful composer health and longevity. Creative success. May he write much more beautiful music that listeners will discuss on blocked platforms. And wishes for Sandra? We simply love Sandra!