Early references of the term appear in Romanian texts from the late 18th and early 19th century, during the period of Turkish suzerainty over the Romanian principalities, as a genre of dance music brought by Phanariotes from Istanbul . Some of these classical manele have been adapted during the ages, becoming part of Romanian folklore.

Modern manele have little if any connections with the original term. They originate in the 1980s and early 1990s as underground translations and imitations of Turkish and Arabic songs. It was being sung on the streets of Ferentari, a poor neighbourhood of Bucharest inhabited mostly by Roma people. One of the earliest known manele bands was "Azur" from Br?ila, in the late 1980s. . A well known Romanian manele singer, Adi de Vito traces it to a genre known as "turceasca"(Turkish), saying that it "existed forever".

It developed in other parts of the country, such as Oltenia and Banat, under Serbian musical influences. The genre has been rocked by accusations of plagiarism a number of times, with manele singers illegally adapting popular songs from Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. The accusations increased especially after the hit "De ce m? min'i" ("Why are you lying to me?") proved to be a mere cover of Despina Vandi's song "M'agapas"/"Ah kardoula mou". Further plagiarism accusations surrounded a well known manele singer's "Sup?rat"("Upset") song which was proven by third parties to be plagiarized from a Croatian song (Umoran by Jasmin Stavros) . Although this song was not technically a manea, it furthered the controversy surrounding this music genre.