The Girls from Dobrogea

I think a girl can do anything. She just needs to believe in herself.
Elvira Meliksetyan

Today's post features songs celebrating the girls (and women) of  Dobrogea for International Women's Day on March 8th.

Dobrogea is a historical region which spans two countries.  The northern part is in Romania and the southern part is in Bulgaria.  In Bulgaria, the name is transliterated to Dobrudja.

This week's song is Eu Sunt Fata Dobrogeana (I am a girl from Dobrogea).

Dobrogea is a region in Romania where much of the music is in odd rhythms.  The song in video #1 is in 7/8 meter (pineapple-apple-apple).  The accent in the music is similar to the Bulgarian sirto or Greek kalamatianos. You can dance to it.

Catalina Alexa is a young performer of Romanian folk songs.  This song was originally made famous by Natalia Serbanescu, who passed on in 2007.



Video #2 is a group of women and girls performing Eu Sunt Fata Dobrogeana.  It concludes with another song in geampara rhythm.



Video #3 is a totally different version of Eu Sunt Fata Dobrogeana performed by Elena Platica.  In this song, there are two different rhythms: 7/8 geampara and 3/4 waltz.

There is info on Elena Platica in Romanian, but I couldn't find the lyrics to the song.

Songs in asymmetric rhythms are common in the Balkans and so are rhythm changes within the same song.



If you enjoyed this you may also like:

More Songs from the Romanian Folkore Region of Dobrogea (includes Aneta Stan's version of Eu Sunt Fata Dobrogeana)

To Celebrate International Women's Day: Songs from the Balkans About Women and Girls

Note:  The Alien Diaries is taking a short break until early April.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.