Today, May 23, a concert by Maks Korzh will take place at Bucharest’s National Stadium. During the Belarusian artist’s performance, 10,000 police officers, gendarmes and security service personnel will be deployed — ten times more than at a Metallica concert, Romanian outlet b365 reports.
The only event in recent history for which the state deployed a larger security apparatus was the 2008 NATO summit.
For Romanian audiences, the singer is largely unknown. Around 3,000 tickets were purchased in Romania, while 39,000 spectators are expected to arrive from other countries. This is the largest influx of foreign visitors for an event ever organized in Romania.
“Who is Max Korzh, the ‘unknown’ artist filling the national arena?” the article’s author asks before offering an answer.
“Maks Korzh is 37 years old. He was born in the small town of Luninets in Belarus and inadvertently became a symbol of Eastern European resistance. In 2012, he started with $300 borrowed from his mother and a song published on VKontakte. Five years later, he filled Minsk Arena,” b365 writes. “During the protests against Lukashenka in 2020, his music — about escape, hopelessness and people crushed by harsh systems — became the soundtrack of the uprising. He did not call people into the streets. He gave words to their fears. In 2022, when the war in Ukraine began, he cancelled all concerts in Russia and Belarus.”
It is worth recalling that on August 9, 2025, Maks Korzh performed in Warsaw before 60,000 spectators at the National Stadium. The concert ended in a major controversy. Polish police detained more than 100 spectators, including for jumping barriers and entering the field.
The musician’s next concerts are scheduled for June 6 in Istanbul and June 26 in Düsseldorf.
