Every country has a couple of classics that everyone knows but people outside aren’t that familiar with.
In Spain – There’s ‘Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar’ and ‘Un año mas”
In the UK it’s “Fairytale in New York” and “Mr Brightside”.
What’s your country’s?
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I wouldn’t say it’s either of them for the UK. Maybe something like 500 miles? Or living next door to Alice?
honestly, there’s A LOT. i would say the most universally known ones are disco polo classics like “przez twe oczy zielone”,
“autobiografia” by Perfect, “dni których nie znamy” by Marek Grechuta and “lubię wracać tam gdzie byłem” by Zbigniew Wodecki would be on that list, too, especially for older generations. also “jestem bogiem” by paktofonika, though maybe that’s just my social bubble.
That people outside aren’t that familiar I’m not sure but my god, every time I meet up with my Italian classmates we end up playing “Sarà perché ti amo” at least once
Vill ha dig, Din tid kommer, Genom eld och vatten off the top of my head. We have a lot of songs that every Swede knows the words to.
Probably “La Marseillaise”, “Frère Jacques” (or any other famous lullaby), “Les Lacs du Connemara” (at least the slow intro part), “L’Aventurier”, … But there are so many.
You could also find specific songs that would fit a single generation (e.g. most people above 80 know “La Java Bleue”, while the 35-45 know “La Tribu de Dana”…).
Plenty of French songs are huge classics here. Les lacs du Connemara, La Corrida, Allumer le feu, Sous le vent, Mistral gagnant….
In Scotland, anything that gets played at Scottish weddings like Loch Lomond, Scotland the Brave or Caledonia are songs that everyone knows and sings along when they’re played anywhere else 🏴
In Sweden are there a lot of songs that everyone knows that are connected to specific holidays. And not just because they are on radio, but because people are very much forced to sing along.
Many are sung during Christmas; both at Lucia (13th of December) when children are made to participate in choirs and on Christmas itself when they are sung while dancing around the Christmas tree (plus of course randomly around Christmas time). There is also a huge amount of songs, some being the same as during Christmas, that you are supposed to sing while dancing around the maypole during Midsummer. These are songs that is drilled into everyone’s head and that you are supposed to know every word to even though, as many were written in the 19th century, they at times contain words and grammar that is no longer used.
Edit: Many of them also contain dances, which reference the lyrics and that you are equally much supposed to know.
I think everyone knows the song “Jede jede mašinka”. It’s a children’s song about a train, but it’s also a really good song to dance to in celebrations, because everybody makes a long train by holding another person’s butt or back.
Another one is the well-known tramp song “Bedna vod whisky”, which is being sung at primary schools and near campfires, so I think everyone older than like 10 should know it. It’s about a condemned person who’s about to be hanged and before this happens, he’s standing on a barrel of whisky.
Well it’s obviously Dragostea din Tei.
Buuut, there are countless songs everyone knows. I can’t even begin to count.
There are from Smiley, Andra, Irina Rimes, etc
There’s also “manele” that, even if you don’t listen to, you know about Saint Tropez.
Probably something from Karel Gott like Trezor, Byt stále mlád or Kávu si osladím, because his songs were very often played in radios during communist regime in Czechoslovakia and they are still played so he was very famous even abroad and it’s one of the most famous Czechs and won many awards for most favorite singer in Czechoslovakia and Czechia
Well, I can’t say for sure in Italy, but when I was living there, T’appartengo by Ambra Angiolini and 50 Special went hard at weddings, and every man aged 25-35 who wanted to woo me got out his guitar and hit the “le bionde trecce, gli occhi azzuri e poi…” (le canzone del sole, lucio battisti) to the point where I got the impression it was their “anyway, here’s wonderwall…”
All of them great songs, to be fair.
Grândola Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso here in Portugal because its was used as a signal for the armed forces start the revolution of 25 of april 1974 that ended the dictatorship
“Zombie” by The Cranberries. It became (and is still) a stadium anthem especially in Irish sports. Only ever got to number 3 in the charts in Ireland, however it is still widely well-known in Ireland and topped the charts in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, USA and Zimbabwe
🇭🇺 if we want something relevant, the Ismerős arcok – Nélküled or the Soho Party – Az éjjel soha nem érhet véget might be the two top contender.
If we’re talking timeless classics, A börtön ablakában is the one that comes to my mind – it has been covered by multiple bands, so i don’t want to choose one.
Denmark
‘Himmelhunde’ (Heaven Dog) The lyrics are mostly just the question: “Can i bring my dog with me into heaven?”
Perhaps a bit bold, but I suspect that the vast majority of the Norwegian population will know this song from the movie Pinchcliffe Grand Prix: https://youtu.be/mVYxuvge4VM?si=W868sWdVLLWBNLDl
Sweden: Bira låten – Markoolio
Björn Rosenström – Pojkarna som busar
Small town Sweden: Volvo – Eddie meduza
Austria.
Every Austrian knows “I am from Austria” by R. Fendrich, a song that is called the “unofficial anthem”.
All I know is that Norwegians sing a Christmas carol about a Christmas gnome who refuses to share his porridge with a bunch of hungry rats (and then the rats die), to the tune of a German children’s song about a grandma who rides her motorbike in the chicken shed.
There are so many songs. To name a few – “Bolje biti pijan nego star” by Plavi orkestar, “Jorgovani” by Dino Merlin and Vesna Zmijanac, “Đurđevdan” by Bijelo dugme, “Miljacka” by Halid Bešlić, “Lejla” by Hari Mata Hari…However, I believe that people from Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro (possibly North Macedonia and Slovenia as well) are familiar with all of these.
The rocky road to Dublin or The fields of Athenry – there are hundreds I would say.
Pretty sure Mr Brightside is an American song though so not UK
Too many Finnish songs come to mind but I’ll just say Finlandia and Sandstorm lol our two unofficial national anthems
In Sweden we have some classics, one of the most famous ones is “Sommartider” by Gyllene Tider. It was the band Per Gessle had before he got internationally famous in Roxette in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It became like an anthem for summer and has been popular for like 40 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beFPoiNn0Bs
No answers for Germany yet?
“Griechischer Wein”, “Über den Wolken”, “Schrei nach Liebe” immediately come to mind.
I’m just trying to find what I as a finn should know nowadays. I’m old, the ones that everyone knew are older than the young adults currently. Was time when everyone knew “Den glider in”. Just like there was a time when everyone knew something from Leevi and the Leavings. So hoping to find out something new.
Not including national anthems, I’m assuming. First note, Irish people are very musical, so we generally have a wide repertoire of songs in our heads. So I’ll take 2 Irish songs sung in English and 1 in Irish.
The first song that comes to mind is Grace. The song was written in 1985 by brothers Frank and Seán O’Meara and is about the artist Grace Gifford who married Joseph Mary Plunkett in the chapel at Kilmainham Gaol just hours before he was executed by a firing squad in 1916 after the Easter Rising. It’s a brilliant song. I’d say everyone in Ireland, young, old, and dead, knows this song.
Also, the Fields Of Athenry. The unofficial warcry of Ireland. This song needs no introduction.
I would reckon most Irish people know Óró sé do bheatha bhaile as well. It’s a good rebel song. It’s probably the best-known song in the Irish language (aside from the anthem), and I’d expect that most Irish people know it.
https://youtu.be/f2MYTBYFXRI?si=dzgnfaibEj-Ve836 Grace
https://youtu.be/swYLRKYjcVU?si=UtiDyUfPDsJSDam0 Fields Of Athenry
https://youtu.be/LwaZRMfb5UE?si=3RRfeTSqmgHM1Bem Óró sé do bheatha bhaile