a conversation with my mother reminded me that you, my readers, might not have the first clue what chalga music actually is in its living and breathing form. fret no longer. i present you two regularly played chalga songs: "nakarai me" (make me (roughly)) and "vsichko mi dai" (give me everything). DISCLAIMER: they're pretty raunchy. watch at your own risk.
allow me to interject that "azis" is not only obviously queer (read: transgender), he is also of roma origin. talk about the complexity of intersecting oppressed identities navigating a ridiculously homogeneous society.
a quote taken from an unknown author commenting on novinite.com regarding azis:
"I wouldn't call him a hero. He's more of an oddity. If Michael Jackson had been born in Bulgaria he would be Aziz."
there it is. the music of the bulgarian future. the music i lived and breathed every single day while living with my host family, all last year as it blared from cell phones in my classroom, sitting at the villa arguing about it over christmas vacation. the music serenading me during dinner at the local restaurant. music i won't miss when i leave in 4 months.
this probably goes without saying, but one needn't see too many more videos to make up their minds about this style of music. apparently, you like or you don't.
i suspect you don't need me to help you make that decision.
a few additional related (and by no means academic) links here and here.
2 comments:
I must say, my love for Azis is unwavering. Just something about him...
The rest of them, however, not so much. And I think Andrea is one of the worst.
Dre, I think it's the lightning bolts he shoots out of his finger nails in that one video.
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