Luis Fonsi’s Spanish single Despacito became the most streamed song ever last week, with 4.6 billion streams in just six months. It is also the fourth most watched video on YouTube with 2.6 billion views. Thanks to the remixed version featuring Justin Bieber, the song was able to reach out to mainstream music listeners globally.
The digital era has witnessed an eruption of foreign language songs topping music charts worldwide. The success of these songs can be attributed to YouTube and the ability of social media to make videos go viral within days or weeks, or because of catchy phrases that received constant replays on the radio. Here are eight other songs that broke language barriers and found success across the world.
Language: Albanian
Artist: Era Istrefi
About: Written mostly in Albanian and partly in English, the dance-pop song was released in the end of 2015 on an un-verified YouTube channel named Neser, amassing 30 million in three months. In that span of time, she was recognised by Sony Music Entertainment and Ultra Music, eventually getting signed to them. The original video was deleted and re-uploaded by Ultra Music through which they got 415 million views. The song ranked 13 on Billboard under the category Hot Dance/Electronic Songs. Due to Ultra Music, the song went viral to the extent that an English version was made.
Language: Arabic
Artist: Sa’ad Lamjarred
About: Garnering more than 500 million views on YouTube, Lm3allem is the most viewed Arabic music video online. The video took Lamjarred’s career to new heights as he was termed the Biggest Arab Star of 2015. Although Arabic is written and spoken differently across regions in the Arab world, this song has a mix of both Moroccan and standard Arabic, to appeal to fans of Arabic music and to fans from his country, Morocco.
Language: Korean
Artist: Psy
About: There are far too many dance moves and catch phrases we can associate this song to. From doing the horse dance to singing “Oppan Gangnam Style” and laughing at Gangnam Style memes, the K-Pop song was the biggest hit of 2012 and held the record for the most watched video on Youtube for more than three years. The artist, PSY, even performed a dance with former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon while in the rest of the world, large groups of 12,000-20,000 people performed Gangnam Style mobs together in countries including France, Indonesia, Italy and South Korea.
Language: Tamil
Artist: Dhanush
About: Hindi music is perceived as upbeat and vivid as a result of Punjabi songs such as Panjabi MC’s Mundian To Bach Ke or Daler Mehndi’s Tunak Tunak Tun. However, the release of the song Kolaveri Di instantly became a hit and was the most searched video on Youtube by November 2011. Even though a downbeat track, it has 125 million views and was voted the Top Song by CNN in 2012.
Language: Italian
Artist: Yolanda Be Cool
About: Known for the phrase “Pa pa l’ americano”, the Italian song topped music charts especially in European countries and in the UK. It was one of the biggest songs during the summer of 2010, a time period when mainstream musician giants such as Eminem and Usher released back to back hit singles and had a lot of prominence on radio. Multiple versions and parodies were made in China and Argentina.
Language: French
Artist: Stromae
About: Combining lyrics about stress and personal struggles with dance beats was the recipe for success for this hit French song. It was released in late 2009 and, similar to We No Speak Americano, it was frequently replayed on radio. The track was ranked No 1 on many charts of European countries and reached 19 on the Billboard charts under the category Dance/Mix Show Airplay. Additionally, it was the most played French language song in 2010. There were multiple versions produced, featuring artists like Pitbull and Kanye West.
Language: Tagalog
Artist: The Black Eyed Peas
About: The Black Eyed Peas, one of the most successful bands of the 2000s, released Bebot as a tribute to its member apl.de.ap’s upbringing in the Philippines. Both the song and music videos had cameos by its members but was primarily performed by apl.de.ap. The song was released in the Philippines, the rest of Asia and Australia and is known as the anthem for the Filipino American community.
Language: Romanian
Artist: O-Zone
About: Informally known because of the ‘Ma-i-a-Hi, Ma-i-a-Hu’, this catchphrase alone was able to get listeners to sing and dance, leading the song to top charts in European countries and reach No 14 on the Hot Dance Airplay charts by Billboard. It achieved gold certification with sales of over 500,000. The popularity of this song went to the extent to which there was a dance version made by the artist Haducci. Whereas, a regional version was made titled Net Die Een Vir My in Afrikaans by Nicholis Louw and Shine 4.
— Viraj Asher is an intern at Gulf News.
