Bulgaria isn’t the first place you think of when it comes to pop music hotspots but that’s where DENA perfected her flow, before packing a suitcase full of dubiously tasteful oversized sweaters and relocating to Berlin. Since making the move, the quirky femcee has been generating serious heat with her oddball brand of hip-hop flavored pop. Take her latest viral sensation “Cash, Diamonds & Swimming Pools”. DENA raps about the important things in life over an understated mash of Balkan rhythms and electro-beats. The track has been likened to early M.I.A. by some and ridiculed as a throwaway novelty hit by others. We’d like to think of it as 2012’s “Gucci Gucci”, making the Bulgarian pop pioneer Eastern Europe’s answer to Kreayshawn.
I am SHOCKED that Lianne La Havas is not on this list.