World, meet Siddharta. Siddharta, world.

The Slovenian sextet Siddharta is about to make it big. MTV has picked them as Artist of the Week, where they join musical heavyweights like Madonna, Metallica, Radiohead and [insert name of pretty much anyone who’s ever been famous.] My Dice, the fourth single from their album Rh-, will be in heavy rotation this week.

This is great news for the band, which has an enormous following in Slovenia but has remained virtually obscure outside the country. It’s also a well-deserved development. In their nearly ten years of making music, Siddharta have churned out consistently excellent songs, among them: the gloriously sappy Na Soncu, the haunting and dark Klinik, the apocalyptic hard-rocking Rave, the great B Mashina (covered by Laibach) and a hard-rock version of Vlado Kreslin’s Od Višine Se Zvrti, not to mention my two personal favorites — the bouncy Kloner and the epic Et Tu.

You can preview these songs and many more on the band’s official, flash-heavy site: Siddharta.net

It’s also worth mentioning that if Siddharta gets famous, and I mean famous-famous, people may slowly start to realize where Slovenia is. Get ready for situations like this:

Foreigner: So, where are you from?
Slovene: Slovenia. It’s this little country next to–
Foreigner: Ohmigod!! Do you know Tomi from Siddharta?
Slovene: Ummm…
Foreigner: Ohmigodohmigod!!! Tell Tomi I love him!!!
Slovene: Ummm…
Foreigner: Hey everybody! This guy’s from Slovenia!!!
Foreigner2: Ohmigod!!
Foreigner3: Ohmigod!!
Foreigner4: Does he know Tomi?!?
Slovene: Ummm…
Foreigners 1,2,3,4: OHMIGOD!!!

It’s better than explaining the difference between Bratislava and Ljubljana.

Here’s hoping the next few weeks are good to Siddharta. I wish them only the best.

(Thanks, Kaiserschmaren!)