Hey, look, he missed another one.

Well this time I have a legitimate excuse: a lightning storm knocked out my cable and internet yesterday (they're still out, I'm currently writing this post in my office at the university) so I was unable to make my usual post.

This week's edition is a special one, something I've been planning for a while.

There's no getting around that America (and the English language) absolutely dominate the global music world. There's no other country or language that has had nearly as much success in the 20th and 21st centuries at innovating and spreading the glory of music.

All that said, there still exist hundreds of other countries and thousands of other languages, and today I'm going to try to expose y'all to a few of them.

I'll introduce our first artist by listing some of the people he's worked with:

Bruce Springsteen, Luciano Pavarotti, Elton John, Andrea Bocelli (actually discovered him), Eric Clapton, Brian May, Peter Gabriel, Ray Charles, BB King, Sting, Miles Davis, Bono, Paul Young, Mana, and many more.

Who is this musical dynamo? Someone you've probably never heard of: Zucchero Fornaciari, a blues rock musician hailing out of Italy. I had the pleasure of hearing this song live (it was his closing song) in what is still to me one of the finest concerts I've ever intended. In this music video you may recognize Dan Akroyd and Jim Belushi as the Blues Brothers. This is Per colpa di chi by Zucchero (actual music starts at 0:40):

Up next we have a veritable vocal phenom in Ivan Rebroff. Ivan Rebroff was a German man named Hans Rolf-Rippert (fun fact: his brother was a German fighter ace credited with shooting down the airplane flown by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, author of The Little Prince) who took on a Russian stagename and began singing Russian folk songs. He had an extraordinary vocal range of four and a half octaves, allowing him to sing from bass to soprano with comfort and ease. His ability to hit the high notes is all the more incredible considering he was built like a defensive tackle and smoked and drank prodigiously. Here's his song, Legend of the 12 Robbers:

Time for some rap. Croatian rap. I don't have much to say about the following song because I think it mostly speaks for itself (how bout dat chanting hook?). All I will say is that I first stumbled on this song while watching hype videos for the MMA fighter CroCop, and that I learned through some research that this song was made in celebration of Croatia winning a Bronze Medal in swimming at the Barcelona Olympics. A Bronze Medal. Imagine how hyped Ante Cash would be if their nation had won gold.

This is essentially the Croatian version of "Who's Got it Better than Us?" except it doesn't sound like absolute crap.

Here's Nema Cijene by Ante Cash:

This next group sadly no longer exists, having broken up after releasing only a small handful of albums. The main selling point of Rin' (pronounced "Ring," I'm told) is that they combine modern pop sensibilities with traditional Japanese instruments. This is the first song of theirs that I ever heard, Sakura, Sakura:

სიმღერის ავტორი - თეონა ქუმსიაშვილი
Look at that script up there. Aren't those characters just gorgeous? To me, Georgian culture (not that Georgia, I'm talking the one that sits between Russia and Turkey) is one of the great hidden gems of the world. The Georgian people are known for their excellent food and wine, their hospitality, and their sensual music. Dato Kenchiashivili is one the finest singers I've ever heard, and one of the finest singers you've never heard of. This is Ramdeni Malodine by Dato Kenchiashivili: