The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word BULGARIA
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
B
U
L
G
A
R
I
A
More clues leading to the result BULGARIA
- European country swell, but not entirely on song
- Country record includes live song
- Short, swelling song representing this country
- Country song swelling briefly at the start
- Secretly record song about liberal country
- Country song after limited expansion
- Country air reduced swelling to start with
- Being in the grip of virus, large strain for country
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.