Paste's EU/Iran World Leaders' Playlists

Playlist

It all started with radio deejays smartly arranging their sets to tell a story, educate or maximize the music's impact. Later, it was picked up by legions of amateur cassette-dubbing artists who specially tailored mixes for their friends, boyfriend or girlfriends (or that one person for whom they so deeply pined). Now, in the age of iTunes, the Playlist is the new mixtape. Paste carries on a proud tradition with this new blog.

Browse Playlist

It's a portentous week for the democratic process. The European Union's elections last weekend significantly shifted their electoral maps, and today's Iranian presidential election is a heated showdown between firebrand conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the reform-minded Mir-Hossein Mousavi. In between those long days of campaigning, these movers and shakers must have found some time to unwind with a little music. Here's our take on what might be queued up in their iPods right now:

Gordon Brown
Britain's Prime Minister tasted the sting of defeat last weekend. With his Labour coalition in shambles, center-right and nationalist parties made big gains in Parliament. His political chances are so far gone that the Conservative opposition party is expected to handily win the next national election in 2010.

Nicolas Sarkozy

"Sarko the American," as he's perjoratively known en France, routed France's Socialist parties by co-opting their populist appeals for more regulation and government intervention in industry. With his center-right coalition maintaining a firm majority and chanteuse Carla Bruni at his side, the diminutive dude is something of a rags-to-riches story in French politics.

Silvio Berlusconi

Despite well-documented ribald behavoir and paparazzi photos of topless women lounging around his villa, conservative Silvio Berlusconi levied his playboy charm to maintain significant leads over the center-left opposition.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The golden boy of the Iranian theocracy, ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad is facing off against slightly-less-conservative Mousavi in an election that may well decide the future of the country. Ahmadinejad could easily deploy the Revolutionary Guard to intimidate voters in precincts that favor Mousavi, but rumors are swirling on Iranian blogs that Ahmadinejad has lost the support of the RG and Supreme Council, and is headed for an upset.