What was the first foreign song to top the US charts?
There was a line in the 2024 Kneecap movie that has stuck with me ever since: “Every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for Irish freedom”.
A simple but effective reminder of vocal power, used to resist centuries of oppressive history and to bind communities together. A concept made all the better when done musically, weaving different tapestries of artistic heritage into one form of sonic resistance.
It’s all the more important when you consider the way charts have traditionally operated. For the most part, art in the modern world has been homogenously westernised. Music is sung in English and films are spoken in English, while the sensibilities lived outside of the transatlantic are quickly labelled ‘world art’.
And it all links to history. In the UK, Welsh-speaking music is severely underappreciated, continuing centuries of cultural oppression which ultimately started with the outlawing of a language, and now continues in the form of subtle microaggressions and under-the-breath ridiculing. On the other hand, the US has only recently seen a swell of Spanish-speaking music properly dominating the charts, finally welcoming a large percentage of its national diaspora to the cultural conversation.
But art has always flourished in adversity, and in the face of all these challenges, great music continues. And while the advent of the internet and streaming has largely been a bad thing for music, it has given a place for the cult status of international records to recirculate. Through streaming sites and online forums, truly impactful music from all over the world has been appreciated on a more level and globally inclined playing field.
The likes of Haroumi Hosono’s classic album Hosono House, Jacques Dutronc’s Et moi, et moi, et moi, and Masayoshi Takanaka’s Seychelles have all become unlikely hits with contemporary audiences. Fans of a broader mind have sought to understand what music fans of other nations have traditionally experienced and, in doing so, have stumbled upon records they now hold dear.
So, what was the first foreign song to top the charts?
But this wasn’t a battle won overnight. Prior to the advent of streaming, there were fans with the same fibre of moral consciousness, listening to songs outside of their realm of comfort. But for the behemoth of the US charts to be toppled, it took the power of the Italian community, and in 1958, they helped get the first non-English speaking song to the top.
Domenico Modugno’s ‘Nel Blu, Dipinto Di Blu’, also known as ‘Volare’, reached number one. Released in February, it crept up the charts before hitting the top spot in August, where it stayed for five weeks.
But it wasn’t just a quick flash in the pan for Modugno. ‘Nel Blu, Dipinto Di Blu’ has since sold over 18million copies worldwide, and also scooped up some silverware at the first-ever Grammy Awards in 1959. So Modugno’s success wasn’t just reserved for the charts; instead, he went home with the awards’ two biggest honours, grabbing the Grammys for ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘Record of the Year’.
