Andreea Munteanu, the “Red Bomb” or “Little Red” is a You Tube performer who does covers with her band Iron Cross and as a solo performer. We did a piece on Iron Cross alongside a review of their album of new material in the past, and we have been aware of Andreea as an interesting solo performer who often posts new videos covering an eclectic range of cover songs.
We have occasionally covered the You Tube scene when we come across singers we like, there are a lot of artists doing cover songs as it is a way to gain interest and traction. However, you can get a wrong impression of popularity as a song may be popular and get the watches, it does not necessarily mean the singer is. There are exceptions and we like to sometimes point our readers toward these independent artists who work hard and deliver time after time.
Andreea Munteanu is from Rumania and she tells us that I “discovered my passion when I was eight, singing in front of my pink Barbie dolls using my hairbrush as a microphone. I still remember my idol was Hannah Montana. I loved her so much that I wanted to become like her, to have the best of both worlds: to be an ordinary girl by day and a rock-star by night. Then, time flew away and I grew up to be a self-believer and ambitious person, with more realistic goals. I learned that dreams don’t become reality through magic, and that the harder you work for something you have faith in, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it. I started to take music seriously at sixteen, when I took my first singing lessons. In 2014, after years of singing and practicing, I met Andrei Cerbu, while he was on “Romania’s Got Talent” and, from that point, I wanted to collaborate with him. Then I got the opportunity to join his Heavy Metal band, “The Iron Cross”, which in the end proved to be a challenge for me, but nothing in this world will stop me from singing. In 2017, The Iron Cross released its first album, and they released the second album in 2020. Besides singing, I was attending Law school as a full-time student.”
What I am going to do now is turn to her solo covers on You Tube and review a few to give you a sample. They are different from her Iron Cross covers which are far heavier!
There are a lot of songs to choose from and, unusually, for this review I am looking at the delivery of the song in comparison to the original and the video too, as Andreea is very much a You Tube girl. She is a far stronger presence on YouTube than she is on Spotify for example.
Here we go, I will look at six examples of the girl and her music. Her solo material is much poppier in choice than the Iron Cross side of life, many but not all are standards.
The Carpenters, “Top of the World” reached #1 in the US in January 1973. I remember being introduced to The Carpenters in my twenties when I was thinking of myself a rock fan, but then you just listen and get swept up in the sheer musicality of the piece. In her version there are two Andreeas both loving the song and delivering it in perfect harmony! She is filming on a hill with the world falling away behind her. It is a faithful version and a dreamy new version that I really liked. Bang on, fresh and valid.
Alesha Dixon “The Boy Does Nothing” – Andreea put this video up in 2025, so it is recent. Whereas I loved just about everything The Carpenters did, I cannot say I was a fan of the original of this. It was one of those annoyingly catchy pop songs that played a lot on UK radio at the time. The song is still a bit annoying, however I liked this version enough to say that Andreea gives some great moves and fills the video and song with confidence.
Dusty Springfield “I Only Wanna Be With You” – this is a challenge for Andreea to impress me with as Dusty is a favorite singer of mine. I even went to the musical Dusty that celebrated her life and music. The song takes us back to 1963 and if I close my eyes I can hear this track note for note. So….Andreea remains faithful to the original and presents a video with pony tails and shorts, walking through the town in a whimsical and romantic mood. It’s a very good version and I say this because I still liked it, no matter how much I revere the original.
Naomi Scott, “Speechless” from Aladdin. This video was put up in 2025 and has Andreea and her microphone. The song shows the power in her vocal range and the inhabits the song and gives it a strong delivery full of emotion, she connects to the track and fills my headphones with the tracks message.
The Pretenders “Brass in Pocket.” This song has grown on me over time, when it came out in 1979 I was a child and it sort of washed over me without making an impression. However, today I appreciate it as one of those great tracks that never ages. Andreea is out and about in this video dressed in rock chic more like her Iron Cross look and is accompanied by a cool car! With this song when Andreea tells us that there is no-one here like her, I believe her! She looks cool and she sounds great. I thoroughly enjoyed the listen.
Carly Simon “You’re So Vain.” This sees Andreea in Parisian style and she hits the notes so well on this swaying classic to the vain and mindless stalkers we all know! (my editor has one such loon who obsessively believes everything is about her! – truthfully) – but no clouds in the coffee here, what a good version. Enjoyment levels high, and she knows how to fill the instrumental moments with her moves and looks to the camera.
I’ve added the video for Smokie, “Living Next Door to Alice” below. No-one can listen to this without singing along – you know you want to!
In summary, of course there are songs that work better than others and sometimes I was less sure of things, but damn this girl is good! Andreea Munteanu isn’t just another YouTube hopeful tossing covers into the algorithmic void — she’s a performer who shows up, shines bright, and brings that spark whether she’s scaling Dusty Springfield, moving like Jagger or rocking out in the country with a classic Pretenders swagger. If you only know her from Iron Cross, take a detour through her solo channel and let yourself be surprised by just how versatile and charismatic she is. Trust me, you’ll end up hitting replay more than once. Give her a follow, drop a like, and join the rising crowd — because Little Red’s star is climbing, and you’ll want to be able to say you were there.
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Stream music from Andreea Munteanu here
Official Website andreeamunteanu.com
By Anna Louise Burgess