After Hours

Gergana. Moje bi tochno ti (Maybe it's exactly you)

For this post, let's take a short detour away from Russia and Ukraine and head down to Bulgaria. Hey, they use the Cyrillic alphabet down there, so they're the real deal, but they've got crazy verbs. Even if you don't know a word of it, you can tell that it sounds completely different from Russian. Me, I can only understand it if people speak very slowly and draw pictures as they go. But it's a pleasant little language; easy on the ears and so forth. OK, so we have pop star Gergana with this effort. She and her rapper friend are trying very hard for that American "street-glam" look. Me, whenever I see foreigners attempting this, all I can think of is that it's merely imitation without context. There might as well be a bunch of monkeys doing the same thing. The first part isn't so bad; the tune is actually a bit intriguing, but once the guy (who looks quite a bit like Kevin Federline, no?) starts rapping, that's when it starts to get silly. Not only does he do those big hand/arm gestures, but his rap itself is peppered with English words. I have no idea what he's saying (not slow, no pictures), but is that really important? It's slightly disappointing that it's not nearly as trashy as Russian videos, but trashiness costs. And even if you're big in Bulgaria, you're not that big.