Dale Dale | Reggaeton Meets Bulgaria

Orkestar Yanitsa; "Dale Dale"



Alright, play this song. This is a song that I've heard multiple times in at Roma weddings or other events with live music. Its catchy, danceable and got a refrain. But think for a second, does this song bear any resemblance to any other song you might have heard in the past couple of years?

I haven't lived in America for over two years, so I really can't speak to the popularity of Reggaeton in America now. However, I can say that this latin fusion has migrated to Bulgaria. Chalga songs (Balkan pop, sort of) bear likeliness to this simplistic and danceable genre of music. But probably my biggest shock was when I was randomly listening to Raggaeton music on YouTube (Why not?) this guy named Don Omar was singing a Roma song I'd heard before; Except that the beat and melody was all wrong. Confused as to why a Latin hip-hop star would be using Romani music in his reggaeton hit "Dale Don Dale", I started looking for the Bulgarian version. And low and behold, I found this clip of Orkestar Yanitsa doing a cover of Don Omar's reggaeton hit.

Let That Be a Lesson . . .

I initially had got the relationship of influences wrong; thinking the reggaeton star had copied off a Roma band. This partially had to do with the fact that I don't understand Spanish or Romani. Additionally, its a great lesson of how we, as westerners, have the penchant to "Romanize" everything and precariously look for cultural links that sometimes aren't there. Examples of this are categorizing something "Roma" because they are Romani musicians (but are actually playing Raggaeton Covers, or Bulgarian Folk Music). Its just something to think about and ponder.

Here's the real song, enjoy the comparison.

Don Omar: "Dale Don Dale"