Versai Club, Sofia
BBC featured Bulgarian pop folk music, chalga, in its Close-Up series: Bulgaria’s special brand of folk music.
I’m surprised to hear the inconsiderate and disrespectful language of the journalist, who seems to be mocking this popular cultural phenomenon in my homecountry. I wouldn’t necessarily argue that her facts are inaccurate, but in the context of the Bulgarian reality, they are more innocent than what she describes.
What is more, chalga and modern Balkan music as a whole (because this type of music is typical not only for Bulgaria, but also for Greece and Serbia) do not deserve such a belittling attitude, especially from someone who is not familiar with our mentality and culture.
In the video, the journalist pays a visit to Sofia’s Versai club (obviously on a weekday night judging by the number of people) and interviews chalga singer Elena. Take a look and feel free to give your feedback!
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July 30, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Sex and Watermelons in Bulgarian Pop Culture « Zikata's Blog
[...] inundate our pop scene, fashion, TV, magazines, and billboards. The young generation’s pop idols, the chalga stars, are platinum-blonde supermodels with silicone boobs and lips. One can mute their music videos and [...]
September 4, 2010 at 4:22 am
Katley
I enjoy chalga even though I don’t understand the lyrics. Not yet anyway
Thank you for your comment about my knowledge of Bulgarian folk music, it’s a topic I love writing about. And I’m glad you enjoy my writing!
Part of the reason I reason I started “The Alien Diaries” was that I couldn’t find any Bulgarian/Balkan folkore blogs on the ‘net (in English). So I decided to start my own.
I launched it on Facebook back in February and was surprised at the positive feedback. I had no idea so many people found folklore interesting!
September 5, 2010 at 12:01 am
zikata
About folklore – I actually took a folklore literature class my freshman year in college and I discovered how vast this academic field is. There are volumes written on all sorts of folklore topics.
The Web definitely needs to catch up on this topic!
February 10, 2012 at 6:54 am
joaquinbarroso
This woman should first listen to hip hop (even british hip hop like propagandhi) and then criticize Bulgarian pop music. I think you can easily find any of the features she mentions in hip hop, which raises a very interesting topic: It would seem that most cultures have this kind of music (in Latinamerica, Regaeton would be the equivalent, although lyrics can be quite demeaning towards women) because it appeals to his desire of people to achieve a certain social level which allows them to have all the materialistic things they will most probably never have (sports cars, yachts, supermodels, tons of ‘bling’, power, etc.). In my opinion its just a display, people don’t mean anything by it and in the end this is music just to have fun and spend a good time at the club.
I love your blog and would like to know your thoughts on this world tendency to create ‘music’ based on material lackings.
Best wishes!
October 28, 2012 at 9:01 pm
tiffanyjgmilleru
Reblogged this on Tiffany Miller Diary.