Ileana Sărăroiu was a renowned Romanian singer of traditional and popular folk music, one of the most important Romanian female folk singers. Her masterpieces, according to Romanian experts, are: "Doi voinici din Valea Mare" and "Unde e Târgoviștea". The first is a song about two lads who go hunting and encounter two sisters whom they end up marrying. The second is the story of a sad old mother who waits for her son in a train station. She does not see anybody come except a girl who she has never seen before; the girl turns out to be the wife of her son.
While singing at a wedding reception, Sărăroiu suddenly collapsed and died from a brain aneurysm in 1979 at the age of 42.