What kind of music do people in Switzerland listen to?

A new study released by US data firm Luminate has revealed what kind of music people in Switzerland tend to listen to via Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services on the internet. Despite Swiss German being the most common language, that prevalence is not reflected in the country’s listening habits.

English remained the most commonly sung language in Switzerland

In the first half of 2023, English-language songs dominated the airwaves in Switzerland, making up 60,7 percent of all songs streamed. However, English-language songs have been getting progressively less popular, having made up 62,5 percent of all streamed songs in 2021. 

Nevertheless, English-speaking artists were streamed 3.417 million times in Switzerland in the first six months of 2023. Songs in High German were the second most popular (14,8 percent, 833 million streams) followed by French (7,6 percent, 427 million), Spanish (4,4 percent, 246 million) and Italian (1,2 percent, 119 million).

Interestingly, this year saw Albanian overtake Swiss German on the list, with Albanian-language songs being streamed 70 million times compared to Mundart’s 62. Luminate noted that Albanian and Portuguese songs have seen the biggest rise in popularity over the past few years.

Flowers by Miley Cyrus is Switzerland's favourite song

As of the middle of 2023, the hit song Flowers by US star Miley Cyrus was the most listened-to song in Switzerland. The song garnered 16,8 million streams by the middle of 2023, making the favourite Miley Cyrus hit of the residents of Swiss cities and cantons, and earning the track four platinum records in the alpine nation.

For the German language, the chart-topper Komet by Udo Lindenberg & Apache 207 took the top spot. The piece - which the two artists explained was a song “about immortality, about the footprint we leave behind” and the connection between German rock and hip hop, according to German outlet NDR - was streamed 6,3 million times in the first six months of the year, earning itself a double platinum disk in Switzerland.

Most streamed songs in Switzerland in 2023

In all, here are the most popular songs in Switzerland for each language:

• English: Flowers, Miley Cyrus
• German: Komet, Udo Lindenberg & Apache 207
• French: Tourner Dans Le Vide, Indila
• Spanish: BZRP Music Sessions #53, Shakira & BZRP 
• Italian: Due Vite, Marco Mengoni 
• Albanian: Jena Mbreter 2, Noizy
• Swiss German: Juicy, EAZ 

Only one Swiss artist recorded the most popular song for a language - and, of course, it’s for Swiss German. Juicy, from Canton Zurich’s own EAZ, was the only Swiss German song to have over 1,2 million streams so far this year.

For more information, check out the Luminate study (sign-up required).

Thumb image credit: Brian Friedman / Shutterstock.com