Belly Dancing and Bacardi: Locating Contemporary Bulgarian National Identity in Chalga Lyrics

 

Allie J. Wills
Dr. Sarah Mohler, Faculty Mentor

Chalga is Bulgarian pop-folk music that originated just before the fall of Soviet communism. Criticized for its departure from traditional values, chalga artists are often ethnically Roma or Turkish musicians whose lyrics idealize sex, money, and fame. However, evaluating chalga’s themes, musical characteristics, and music videos through the critical lens of orientalism reveals a deeper tension between Bulgaria’s Eastern-affiliated past and Western-oriented future. This paper will examine the lyrics and music videos of two chalga stars--Fiki and Galena--which are rife with signs of Ottoman legacies, Western decadence, and present hardships in Bulgaria. Fiki and Galena’s music fabricates an image of Bulgaria that paradoxically idealizes both East and West in a genre that is wholly Bulgarian, representing Bulgaria’s complex national identity in these post-communist years. The constructed cultural identity of chalga subverts Bulgarian nationalist discourse and Westernization efforts alike, indicating that Bulgaria still exists in a transitional space.

Keywords: Bulgaria, orientalism, chalga, pop-folk, Westernism, Easternism, Fiki, Galena

Topic(s):English
Music

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Session: TBA
Location: TBA
Time: TBA