"Dragostea din tei" is written in Romanian. There are several proposed translations of the title, such as Love from the lime trees (also called "linden trees") and Love out of the linden trees. The intended translation is possibly shown in the subtitles of the music video by O-Zone, which translates it as Love of the linden tree. Linden trees have strong lyrical associations in Romanian poetry, tied to the work of the poet Mihai Eminescu. Therefore the expression may be interpreted as romantic, "linden-type" love. A strong link may be to Eminescu's actual linden tree from Iaşi, Copou park. Another interpretation of the title is a simple paraphrase of a popular Romanian children's book, "Pupăza din tei" by Ion Creangă, translated to English as "The Hoopoe in the linden tree". "Linden-tree-love" could also be a direct translation from the Russian language where "linden-tree" is used as an adjective (липовый) to describe something disingenuous or of poor quality, weak in structure, unreliable, not durable. Therefore "linden-tree love" would have a perfect idiomatic meaning in Russian (липовая любовь), which could be translated as "Unreliable love".

Another very likely translation takes into account the neighbourhood "Tei" in Bucharest, the capital of Romania (in Romanian, "Cartierul Tei"). Since it's a place very popular with college students (several dorms in the area) and youth in general, the connection is there ("Love in Tei" as in "Love among young people"). In spring especially, many young pairs can be seen in the parks and streets in Tei.

Another probable translation is ”the first love”. That is because the words ”din tei” might be a in fact a deformation of the word ”dintâi” (it means ”the first one”, in Romanian).

The best-known lyrics are the repeated line "nu mă, nu mă iei" from the chorus, hence the name "Numa Numa song". Literally "nu mă" means "not me" in Romanian (cognate to "no me"), while "nu mă iei" means (in this context) "you won't take me" (word-for-word: "not me take"), so the repeated chorus is "you won't, you won't take me" (literally: "not me, not me take"). In full, the chorus, which also includes the title of the song, reads:

Vrei sa pleci dar nu mă, nu mă iei,Nu mă, nu mă iei, nu mă, nu mă, nu mă iei.Chipul tau si dragostea din tei,Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

which translates as:

You want to leave but you won't, you won't take me,You won't, you won't, take me, you won't, you won't, you won't take me.Your face and the love in the linden trees,Remind me of your eyes.

The song was written and composed by Dan Bălan, and the original version was sung by Bălan, Arsenie Todiraş, and Radu Sârbu. The single was first released in 2003 in Moldova, where the group lived and produced at that time, and in the spring of 2004 in most other European countries. In as late as 2006, the song was still in the lower reaches of some Eastern European singles charts. It was written and produced by Bălan (who wrote most of the group's songs), and was one of 2004's most successful summer hits, as well as one of the best selling singles of the year across Europe.

O-Zone's version was the most popular across Europe, with the exception of Italy, where it was only known by discogoers, and Sweden. A cover version of the song performed by the Romanian singer Haiducii, who released the song in Europe around the same time, was more popular in Italy and Sweden (it reached #1 in the singles charts). "Dragostea din tei" has also inspired a number of parody videos distributed over the Internet, most notably Gary Brolsma's popular "Numa Numa Dance" video in 2004. The "Numa Numa Dance", which first appeared on the flash site Newgrounds.com, has become so notable that it has sparked numerous parodies of the video itself in the United States over the years since 2004.

In addition to filming the music video in a recording studio, the group also shot footage on an actual plane's wing.