Chalga does two things at once: the kyuchek 9/8 rhythm and the Bulgarian folk vocal production put you firmly in the Balkans, while the augmented-second hijaz or nikriz modes and the Yamaha 'Oriental Kit' keyboard voices pull the sound east toward Turkish arabesk. Female vocalists sing with the open throat and forward projection of the Bulgarian folk-choir tradition, but the lyrics — often provocative — deal with post-1989 material life: cheating partners, party nights, money, and the noisy geographies of Sofia and the Black Sea coast. Critics have called the genre vulgar and kitsch since it emerged in the early 1990s, and its dominant label Payner Music has largely absorbed that criticism as a brand asset: to be transgressive is the product.

The Todor Zhivkov regime collapsed in November 1989, and with it the state-controlled Balkanton record monopoly. Into that gap poured small-run cassettes of Turkish-influenced kyuchek dances recorded on cheap keyboards, sold at Sofia's open-air Odeon market and at the Turkish border. Initially labelled 'ethno' or 'pop-folk,' the music was gradually re-appropriated under the older term chalga (originally a pejorative for Roma tavern music). In 1997 the entrepreneur Mitko Payner founded Payner Music in the southern town of Dimitrovgrad, and the 2001 launch of the label's Planeta HD satellite TV channel built a 24-hour distribution channel. Payner's stable — Ivana, Gloria, Preslava, Anelia, Tsvetelina Yaneva, and the biggest of them all, the openly-gay Roma singer Azis (born 1970) — dominated the industry through the 2000s and 2010s.

First, feel for the underlying meter. Even when the surface pulse is 4/4 EDM, the ornamentation layer is often working in 9/8 kyuchek or 7/8 rachenitsa. Second, the mode: chalga melodies typically live in hijaz (augmented-second second) or nikriz (augmented-second fourth), producing the characteristically Turkish-tinged sound. Third, the vocal production: chalga singers use the open-throated, forward-projected voice of the Bulgarian folk choir tradition, not classical bel canto or pop chest voice. Fourth, Azis is impossible to disentangle from his visual staging — drag, extreme make-up, camp choreography — and the songs are as much objects to be watched as heard.

Start with Azis's Hop Trop (2004) — the official Payner Planeta YouTube upload is the reference. Then Preslava's Piqna Igra (2010) for the mainstream female-chalga template. Deeper listening: Azis's Kokoshkata (2002) and Ne Se Targuvame (2007); Anelia's Ne Sam Angel (2008); Tsvetelina Yaneva's Kolko Mi Lipsvash (2013); Ivana's 1990s standards. To hear the trans-Balkan pop-folk network, put chalga next to Serbian Ceca (turbo-folk) and Romanian Nicolae Guță (manele) — the shared musical base becomes obvious.

Payner Music's home base of Dimitrovgrad is a town of about 40,000 in southern Bulgaria — its position between the Turkish and Serbian borders directly enables chalga's role as a musical trade-route between arabesk and turbo-folk. Second: Azis nearly represented Bulgaria at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest with Let Me Cry (finishing second in the Bulgarian national selection in 2005, then performing at Eurovision 2006 with Mariana Popova) — an openly-gay Roma Bulgarian singer on the Eurovision stage remains a marker in the history of Balkan LGBTQ+ pop.