Tudor Lakatos is fighting discrimination against Romania’s Roma minority through the music of Elvis Presley
Tudor Lakatos is fighting discrimination against the Roma people, one Elvis Presley song at a time.
Decked out in a rhinestone shirt and oversized sunglasses, with his black hair slicked back into a 1950s-style quiff, Lakatos swivels his hips and belts out his own idiosyncratic versions of hits like “Blue Suede Shoes” at venues throughout Romania.
But don’t call him an Elvis impersonator. Lakatos prefers to say that he “channels” the King of rock ‘n’ roll’s global appeal to break down stereotypes about the Roma and provide a positive role model for Roma children.
“I never wanted to get on stage, I didn’t think about it,” Lakatos, 58, said after a recent gig at a restaurant in the capital, Bucharest. “I only wanted one thing — to make friends with Romanians, to stop being called a Gypsy,″ he added, using an often derided term for people belonging to the Roma ethnic group.
The Roma, an ethnic group that traces its roots to South Asia, have been persecuted across eastern Europe for centuries and are still associated with high rates of poverty, unemployment and crime.
