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Trdat

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I've never actually been anywhere near Bulgaria, or any of the European continent for that matter. But there are quite a few artists in the genre that I would like to have seen perform live, including some of the artists I've posted here and in similar topics on some other forums (including another popular headphone forum, called head-fi).

These are some of the more mainstream chalga artists, and groups of performers that have probably been the most influential in shaping my interest and appreciation for the genre. And I believe most are still active, except where noted.

Most of the above have only moderately high-pitched vocals (except for Toni Storaro, Galin, Boris Dali and Iliyan who sing in more baritone voices). These are some of the female artists with the highest pitched voices though. So use/listen to them at your own peril... :)

Really appreciate this, it gives me a lot to go on. Looking forward to my trip, it will be my second time in Bulgaria, I have travelled the Balkans extensively even lived in Serbia for a few long stints. But most of my nostalgia for folk is connected to diasporan Balkan parties in Australia hence my tendency to post old tracks.

Anyway, thanks again. I will analyze and look through your recommendations.
 
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ADU

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Really appreciate this, it gives me a lot to go on. Looking forward to my trip, it will be my second time in Bulgaria, I have travelled the Balkans extensively even lived in Serbia for a few long stints. But most of my nostalgia for folk is connected to diasporan Balkan parties in Australia hence my tendency to post old tracks.

Anyway, thanks again. I will analyze and look through your recommendations.

Cool.

During the pandemic alot of artists also started releasing mashups of their older tunes (which is not such a bad way to familiarize yourself with some of their work). And another male artist I became aware of as a result of those was Jony (aka Jony Iliev & the Band). I haven't listened to alot of his stuff yet, but maybe some others here would like some of it.

There are a number of other good male artists in the genre that I'm probably also neglecting or forgettin, in addition to the few that I've mentioned so far (ie Azis, Djordan, Toni Storaro, etc.). Fiki and Emrah are Toni Storaro's sons, and also have a strong following in the genre. And I like some of their work as well. Stiliyan, Medi, Konstantin, Krum and Jamaikata are other well-known artists in the genre that also do some interesting stuff. And I like some of their tracks and vids too.

There are also quite a few new dudes on the chalga scene. Emiliano and Sinan are two who seem to have some potential. But there are quite a few others as well. AX Dain is also a fairly new artist that is pretty popular and does some nice work.

I'll try to post some more tracks by the other artists on my list as well. I can't guarantee you or others will like any of em though. :) I enjoy alot of "retro chalga" as well. And a fair number of artists I mentioned would have songs or videos that also fall into that category... Basically anything made about 5-10 years ago (or more) can pretty much qualify as "retro" in this genre. And some of the older vids can be also be pretty fun to check out.
 
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ADU

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But, below I have posted an extreme example of what you might call natural falsetta of live performances that have an extreme control of their vocal cords, a full entertainment factor which involves like you said the tale. The first has superb microphone control and has included the falsetta monologue midway with a full ballad being sung like a theatre which is essentially called mawal or mugham a type of music that recites the ballad at the beginning but is also a term used for falsetta in the Middle east. The second is my all time favorite singer Paola Foka who hits those croaky tones with ease without any processing and the third an Arabic singer who sings traditional mawal in a traditional sense. These are more traditional and much less poppy in nature but great to analyze for people who respect music, instruments and all brought together superbly the baglama is played unbelievably. Probably the most renowned singers in middle east region but of course there are others which I couldn't find performances on this level so I kept the vid to the 3 singers.

I'm not as up on the Greek singers, but I like some of Paola's work as well. And she has put out a number of good vids on both the Heaven Music and PanikRecords YouTube channels. I liked some of the rather striking visuals on this recent one in particular. (Nice tune as well imho.)

Paola "Ematha Na Mathaino"

 
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ADU

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There are undoubtedly also many good bands (or "orks" as they're called, which is short for orchestra) that also play a mix of folk and pop-folk, which are probably also worth checking out. Sasha Rico & Rico Band is probably one of the more well-known of these kinds of groups. But there are many others that I'm less well acquainted with, that will also perform with some of the above list of artists.

Ork. Kristali is another popular chalga ensemble that has been around for quite awhile. Shoulda mentioned them too. There are many others though.
 
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ADU

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Forgot to mention AX Dain as well. (Edited my previous post above to include him.)

AX Dain "Zabravi Me / Ksehase Me" (RMX)

 
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ADU

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During the pandemic alot of artists also started releasing mashups of their older tunes (which is not such a bad way to familiarize yourself with some of their work). And another male artist I became aware of as a result of those was Jony (aka Jony Iliev & the Band). I haven't listened to alot of his stuff yet, but maybe some others here would like some of it.

Anglicized versions of Bulgarian names like the one above can be a little confusing btw. In Bulgarian Cyrillic script, Jony would be Джони, which can be translated a number of different ways, as Joni, Djony, Djoni, Dzhony or Dzhoni. The same would apply to names like Джордан (Djordan), Джена (Djena), and so forth.
 
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ADU

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Sasho Roman is another male artist from the early days of the genre in Bulgaria, who has collaborated with a number of other artists of late, or contributed background vocals to their work. One example would be this 2020 track with Vanya. This is on the brighter side btw, so watch yer vol. (I am a rather big Vanya fan though, and enjoy most of her songs and vids.)

Vanya & Sasho Roman "Apokalipsis"

 
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ADU

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Bledi Selita "Panda". Some flashing images.

 
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Multicore

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I recently discovered Turkish singer Gaye Su Akyol. Some of the best music I've heard of any genre for a while. Great voice, intelligent turkish psych-folk with some great arrangements and some fine guitar/oud picking. What's not to like!?
Gr8 stuff. thanks for the tip.

In the 1st of your 3 vids, in the instrumental solo, she uses a buzuq, a long neck fretted instrument with steel strings. Oud has no frets and uses gut/nylon strings. I don't see one in the 2nd. In the third there is an oud on a stand on stage but it is not played in that number.

I bought myself an oud for xmas last year. This one. My ambition is to one day get it in tune.
 
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bluefuzz

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In the 1st of your 3 vids, in the instrumental solo, she uses a buzuq
In other videos available on YT the guitarist plays an oud. And yes, I do know what it is. I'm even in the planning stages of building one ... ;-)

I bought myself an oud for xmas last year. This one. My ambition is to one day get it in tune.
Nice! Good luck with the tuning. Double courses and friction pegs are are not for the faint hearted.
 

bluefuzz

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If you make it with machine tuners then I may want to buy it from you.
Lol! Don't hold your breath. I build slowly and I have couple of guitars to finish first ... ;-)
I think guitar style metal machines would be too heavy on an oud - not to mention look wrong. Perhaps Planetary Pegs could be made to work?
 

Multicore

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