Eastern Tide; Bands from Eastern Europe are flocking West.

Byline: Ginanne Brownell

In the end it was a battle of the Slavs. Earlier this month, in front of a TV audience of 100 million, Marija Serifovic, a pudgy Serbian singer, beat out Ukraine's Verka Serduchka in the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. And though Eurovision may not represent the cream of Europe's musical crop, it certainly earns winners recognition; last year's victor, Lordi--a heavy-metal band from Finland whose members dress up like monsters--became a household name across the Continent. That's good news for other East European musicians hoping to break into the wider (and richer) West European market; eight out of the top-10 bands in this year's contest hailed from former communist countries.

This summer expect to hear a lot more music echoing out of the East. In July more than 150,000 fans will converge on the grounds of an old fortress in Novi Sad, Serbia, to listen to the likes of the Beastie Boys, Robert Plant and Snoop Dogg--as well as lesser-known bands like Serbia's Obojeni Project and Polish DJ Magda. Even Western festivals like the Lowlands in the Netherlands, Britain's Glastonbury and St. Gallen Festival in Switzerland will be showcasing Eastern European bands this summer. "It will only be a matter of time before someone from Eastern Europe explodes [on the scene] in a big way, which will then open up the floodgates for everyone," says Henry McGroggan, a Scottish-born Warsaw-based concert promoter.

It's actually surprising it's taken East European bands this long to win notice outside their own borders. Since the collapse of communism, books, fashion and film from the region have flourished in Western Europe, thanks to designers like Slovenia's Lara Bohinc and such film directors as Bosnia's Emir Kusturica.

But music has always been a tougher sell. Never mind that these bands are often singing in unfamiliar languages; their sound--which can include trumpets and horns mixed with heavy-metal guitars--is alien to Western ears. As Eastern Europeans have begun to move freely around the Continent, however, they have brought their musical tastes with them. Concert promoters in the West have ...