Number 9: Slovenia. 7.82% GREEN (7.82% of that country's charting songs earned top marks on my spreadsheet)Slovenia is home to only 2 million people, but they qualified for the World Cup this year, and they have a music scene that is stronger than that of countries over 10 (or even 40) times their size. Their most famous export was industrial satirists/weirdos Laibach. An even more enjoyable band from the 80s, in my opinion, was Videosex, whose singer Anja Rupel warbled on a few of Laibach's "Germania" tracks.
Slovenians love their jazz and big band stuff, as evidenced by the extremely talented RTV Slovenia Big Band. However, over the years they have proven capable of producing majestic rock, funky rap tunes, epic pop songs with hot flutists, and pumping house tracks.
Slovenians also find turbo polka to be a more or less acceptable form of entertainment.
When your potential national audience consists of only 2 million people, it makes sense to reach beyond your country's borders. Turbo-polka-ers Atomik Harmonik, for example, have re-recorded their songs in German in order to take advantage of the market in neighboring Austria.
You would imagine that Slovenian music would be embraced by countries throughout the former Yugoslavia, but a barrier to Slovenians is the language; many Slovenians tell me they can understand Serbo-Croatian, but it doesn't work the other way around. German, Italian, and (of course) English look like the most profitable way to go. But it would be a shame if the Slovenian language died off of their music charts the way Romanian has on Romania's. Stick with the Slovenian for as long as you can!
A few tracks from the last couple of years:
Alenka Godec - Vsak Je Sam
Jadranka Juras - Drugace Ne Znam
Justine Juliette Feat Zlatko - Hip Hop
Tabu - Supersong
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