Chalga ("Чалга" in Bulgariann, Чалгија, Čalgija) is the most common word, used for identifying a style of music in Bulgaria and Macedonia, aka Pop Folk, incorporating a blend of Bulgarian, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and Roma.

•Today chalga record companies collaborate and work with partners mainly from the other Balkan countries, making this type of Bulgarian music popular both in its home - Bulgaria, and abroad in the Balkans.

•Chalga is popular in so-called "chalga dance clubs" and chalga oriented pubs. Most chalga clubs are called 'клуб' (club). Some of the Chalga clubs are the most exclusive venues in town (you have to reserve a table a week in advance for the most popular ones while for most other clubs same-day reservations are common). The popularity of the music among the wealthy Bulgarians is a great stimulus for investors, and this results in expensive interior and exteriors of the clubs as well as a higher-than-average level of service.

http://chalgatube.com/

There is a website dedicated for this particular genre of music.

•The focus on the music videos: Production and marketing strategies in turbo-folk emulate and worship global main-stream trends in music, fashion and design. It is basically only the vocals using the characteristic rhythmic ululations techniques that distinguish it from Western pop music.

•The music videos usually promote smoking cigarettes, cigars and on occasions weed. The videos usually consist of the artist smoking in a certain scene or drinking alcohol, with most music videos of woman artists the long, extra slim cigarettes are common.

http://popfolk-chalga.com/ http://www.chalgatube.com/en/

The websites associated with Chalga advertise the latest or best singles. This helps to promote the artist and their singles as the audience would look on these websites to catch up or discover new songs.

http://planeta.tv/ http://www.diema.bg/

•Gergana, Malina and Gloria are just some of current Chalga stars of today. Their half-naked appearances are just as important as their attractive voices, and it’s not unheard of that such stars find themselves under the plastic surgeon’s knife or laden with hair extensions.

•Provocative hip-shaking, scanty clothing, lewd lyrics, oriental motifs, fake eyelashes and tons of make-up. The ingredients of Bulgaria’s pop folk music or chalga - as it is derogatorily called -recently made a furore on the pages of foreign media, cementing its status as nothing short of a social phenomenon and a stereotype for Bulgaria.

Their lyrics often centre around luxurious lifestyles, parties and beautiful women. The lyrical vocabulary often encompasses just 100 words, a limitation which often adds to Chalga’s success. Many songs sound primitive and suggestive, sometimes even pornographic, such as the song ‘Naked’ by Roma transvestite Azis which contains the lyric - ‘I’ll help you get naked down below, then forget yourself in our rhythm.’ At the far end of the spectrum, several songs express themselves in less poetic, classy terms, such as Slavi Trifonovs’ hit ‘Seven, eight, I’ll take you to bed.’