The first non-English language song to reach number one
While English isn’t a universal language, it’s the closest thing to one. All around the world, artists sing in English, even if they come from far-flung places such as Latin America or Scandinavia. However, occasionally foreign language tracks from the extensive fabric of world music have surpassed cultural barriers, and the trend is only continuing to grow.
In recent years, the rise of K-pop and Latin hip-hop has made the charts more globalised than ever before. For example, in 2023, Coachella Festival was headlined by Blackpink and Bad Bunny, who both primarily sing in a foreign language. The line-up of America’s leading festival shows a cultural shift which has taken place, but it’s been over half a century since the first non-English song rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
According to a report by Billboard Pro about the changing trends in musical tastes: “Between 2020 and 2022, Latin music grew 55.29% in album consumption in the US, according to Luminate, far outstripping the overall industry’s 21.61%, as well as the growth of the four biggest genres in the US over that time: R&B/hip-hop (12.17%), rock (22.28%), pop (20.64%) and country (19.22%).”
The report adds: “And Latin isn’t alone: World Music has also made tremendous strides over that time period, growing 47.67% from 2020 through 2022 on the Stateside growth of K-pop and Afrobeats, among other ex-U.S. genres, and up 25.8% in 2022 over 2021. Both genres have seen over 20% growth in on-demand audio streams dating back to 2019, while the overall industry has grown in that sector in the mid-teens each year during that time.”
In total, nine non-English tracks have reached the top of the chart in the United States, including three songs since 2017. In the 20 years before ‘Despacito’ by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber reached the top spot, there wasn’t a single foreign language track to achieve this feat.
In 1958, Domenico Modugno became a record-breaker when he scored a number one with ‘Nel Blu, Dipinto Di Blu’, which he sang in his native Italian tongue. The song was released in February of the same year and slowly rose up the charts until it climbed to the top position in the Billboard Hot 100 in August, staying there for five weeks.
‘Nel Blu, Dipinto Di Blu’ has sold over 18 million copies worldwide and was also honoured at the inaugural Grammy Awards in 1959. At the ceremony, Modugno was awarded the Grammy for ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘Record of the Year’.
As well as becoming the first non-English track to top the Billboard Hot 100, Modugno made history with ‘Nel Blu, Dipinto Di Blu’ for another reason. Monumentally, it was also the first song to land at the top of the chart to be written by the artist who sang it.
Listen to ‘Nel Blu, Dipinto Di Blu’ below.
