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ULAANBAATAR – I’m not a big fan of country music.
It’s true — my first real concert I ever went to was Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, but I didn’t really buy the tickets, nor did I have any say in what was playing on the CD in my sister’s Volkswagen Jetta when she’d pick me up from my friends’ houses.
I relate to little about country life; riding down dirt roads in blue jeans and every other stereotype are basically just squares in modern country music Bingo to me.
But just because I don’t fill my iTunes library with twang doesn’t mean it’s not an American — nay— a global phenomenon.
Take a contestant from “Mongolia’s Got Talent” as a prime example. Enkh-Erdene Otgonbat (or O.Enkh-Erdene as he is sometimes referred) auditioned for the reality show by singing a George Strait song.
Yesterday's Have You Seen This?
Have You Seen This? Snow shoveling dance break
Who says that the never-ending task of shoveling snow during Canadian winters can’t have dance breaks?Yes, it turns out even the Mongols can sing with as much down-home soul as the King of Country, whose “Amarillo by Morning” Enkh did justice in his five-minute audition.
The video of the electrician whose father advised him not to pursue a career in singing has recently been circulating around Facebook, though the show debuted in October. You may have missed it, unless you get Mongol TV.
Spoiler alert: O.Enkh-Erdene went on to win the competition and even does a mean Elvis Presley impression. Staggering, considering he’s singing in a foreign language.
