Balkan Music Fans Cling to Homegrown Stars

At a time when Latin pop hits like "Havana" and "Criminal" battle with Britpop love song "Perfect" for world dominance on YouTube, audiences in most [but not all] parts of the Balkans still prefer their own musical traditions despite the advance of a global pop music culture.

That is what the map of the most-listened-to hits for December 2017, compiled by data journalism collective The Pudding, shows.

Covering YouTube data from over 3,000 cities across the world, the map shows the cultural borders of top pop songs - and, unlike in the rest of Europe, it shows people in most Balkan countries prefer local stars to international pop icons.

This is shown by checking out who leas the YouTube race in each country in the region, and then comparing it to the map of the rest of the world.

If you wonder who still listens to Serbian diva Ceca in 2017, remember that in all the Central Asian republics, the top hit for December was still Korean singer PSY's 2012 "Gangnam style" while Seattle's most listened-to song that month was "Beat it" by Michael Jackson, released way back in 1982.

Albania

The song "Skifterja e zemres" ["My heart's falcon"] is a duet by the well-known Albanian comedian Bes Kallaku and the singer Klajdi Haruni.

Kallaku published the song on September 2017 and dedicated it to his wife, the singer Xhensila Myrtezaj, following their wedding last summer.

The lyrics are written by Kallaku himself as a dedication of his love for Xhensila while the video of the song has footage from their wedding. 

Serbia

The song that topped the YouTube charts in Serbia in December was from the local  ...