Ever wonder what's topping the pop music charts in Croatia? The answer might surprise you.
Twice in the past 10 months, a little-known rap group at Swarthmore College has produced a politically charged single that has rocked the souls of young listeners on Radio 101 in Zagreb, Croatia's largest and most popular station.Last winter, the group, the Croatian Liberation Front, produced its first single, "Croatia's Gotta Be Free."
With its throbbing, aggressive beat and foul-language lyrics that can't be played on U.S. stations, "Croatia's Gotta Be Free" rocketed to the top of Radio 101's Top 40 chart in a matter of weeks.
It topped out at No. 2, a position it held for more than a month, behind a record by Guns N' Roses and ahead of Michael Jackson.
Little wonder. The 31/2-minute single was played 26 times in the first six hours after it arrived, said Van Curtis, co-producer of the single and one of the group's three core members.
Inspired by their success during the winter, the group went back into the studio to produce a CD and a new single called "Dubrovnik Is Burning."
Just like much of rap music in America, the CLF's music is cemented in anger and frustration. In this case, the anger is at the political situation in the former Yugoslavia and the political and economic repression by the Serbian government in Belgrade against other groups in what's left of the country.
The other founding members are English literature major Bob Greenawalt of New York, whose mother was born in Croatia, and Mario Vuksan, a native of Zagreb who had also worked at Radio 101, which boasts 600,000 listeners.
"Croatia's Gotta Be Free" starts with the stirring refrain: "Oslobodi nas od Slobe," or "Free us from Slobo," then switches to English, which Greenawalt said young Croatians like in rock music.
The second song, "Dubrovnik Is Burning," went to No. 1 on Radio 101 for more than a month.
Proceeds from sales of the CD and concerts performed before Croatian-American groups go to support Croatian relief, Curtis said.