Tag: europe

Legend of French Singer-Songwriter Serge Gainsbourg Looms Large on Spotify

June 24, 2019

Name just about any modern French or international superstar—Phoenix, Sebastien Tellier, Benjamin Biolay, David Bowie, Beck, Arctic Monkeys, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker—and they can probably trace their sound back to Serge Gainsbourg. The singer-songwriter was a trailblazer of multiple genres (pop, rock, funk, disco, chanson, and reggae among them) whose lyrical playfulness, innovative sounds, and overall influence echo through today’s music. Starting June 24 and continuing for several weeks, Spotify is celebrating his incredible legacy with several new Gainsbourg-inspired playlists.

Some of the playlists of his songs are organized into the genres he advanced, with the tracks curated in an order to suit the moment or mood of the day. Other playlists are compilations of songs by artists Gainsbourg influenced across those genres, including chanson, pop, indie, and hip-hop. Listeners can also use a new Which Gainsbourg Are You? tool to generate a customized Gainsbourg playlist.

Gainsbourg didn’t just influence French music. He wrote more than 500 songs that have been covered more than 1,000 times by other artists. He even is responsible for the 1965 hit “Poupée de cire, poupée de son,” performed by France Gall, which won the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg that year.

Among Gainsbourg’s biggest hits was “Je t’aime moi non plus,” which he once called “the ultimate love song.” It was also perhaps an allegory for Gainsbourg’s personal life. He first recorded “Je t’aime moi non plus” with his lover at the time, Brigitte Bardot. They parted ways, and the song was re-recorded and released with Jane Birkin, with whom he had a daughter—the singer-actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. Her father wrote her 1986 album, Charlotte for Ever.

He also wrote songs for Petula Clark, Viktor Lazlo, Alain Chamfort, and dozens more.

Though he passed nearly three decades ago, Gainsbourg still has more than 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and his songs have been streamed more than 170 million times.

Check out the infographic below to further explore Serge Gainsbourg’s enduring popularity.

Listen to Initiales S.G, the new podcast exploring Gainsbourg’s life and work, narrated by French actor Melvil Poupaud, which includes a theme song by French pianist Chassol and interludes by singer Clara Luciani.

EuroPride 2018: Identify-ing the Music of Diversity

August 2, 2018

Thomas Sekelius’s favorite EuroPride memory is deeply personal—and musical. “Singing my song ‘One More in the Crowd,’ the official Pride song, last year at Stockholm Pride was quite an indescribable feeling,” he recalls. “Not only did I sing a song of my own in front of hundreds of people dancing and cheering, but I got to stand for a cause that I have preached since day one. That was so genuine.”

While U.S. Pride wrapped up at the end of June, the party is just getting started in many parts of the world, including our home country of Sweden. Right now, the continent’s annual EuroPride celebration has just kicked off in Stockholm, where we are currently launching its new original podcast series, Identify, hosted by Thomas.

Identify investigates how music helps construct a person’s sense of self. The podcast features celebrity guests—including sibling duo Arrhult, writer TramsFrans, actress Saga Becker, artist Gabriel Fontana, activist Juliet Atto, YouTuber Sara Songbird and rapper Beri—sharing intimate stories about how music has shaped and influenced them. Each celeb has also created a playlist of inspiring songs, available until the end of August on our Pride Hub in Sweden.

To learn more about Identify, we spoke with Thomas Sekelius about the message behind the series, what it’s like to be LGBTQ in Sweden, and the music that’s helped shaped who he is today.

Thomas Sekelius, host of Spotify’s Identify podcast

Q: EuroPride is underway in Stockholm – what are you excited for?

A: I’m looking forward to seeing the community come together to paint the city in the colors of the rainbow while being the absolute proudest they can be. Pride Week is full of events that in one way or another fit everyone and will guarantee an amazing few days. But let’s not forget that not only this week, but the entire year is equally ours as anyone else’s. Diversity, diversity, diversity. Embrace it!

Q: What is unique about being LGBTQ/coming out in Sweden?

A: The overall acceptance of LGBTQ people in Sweden is pretty far along compared to other countries. This doesn’t mean that we should relax and be satisfied. We have a long way to go, in Sweden as well as other parts of Europe and the world. Even though acceptance has been better by the people there is still a lot of discrimination against more marginalized groups. So more safe spaces are needed for sure until we are all treated the same.

Q: You are open about your sexuality in your song “Awakening.” Why is music a good outlet for coming out?

A: Music plants a feeling in the people listening. Instead of only writing them down, you can combine those words with a melody and a massive production and give everyone a chance to almost actually taste the rainbow. You can really capture a feeling.

Q: As the host of Identify, you ask your guests questions about how music has shaped their identity. What are three times when music shaped yours?

A: When I was little, in my preteen years, and within the last two years. When I was little, I used to love listening to music in Swedish, English, and Hungarian, which is my mother tongue. I could float away to the land of music. I found so much happiness in music. When I was in the seventh and eighth grades, I had a hard time in school and could find both strength, peace and a trigger to my tears in music. I was also in musicals, training with a vocal coach, singing in a choir, and so on. Music was a big part of my life. The last few years, I went deeper. I began finding an interest in writing music and paid more attention to the production of songs, whereas before I mostly just listened to melodies, voices and lyrics for the overall feeling. Today, I aim to write my own songs, and am learning step by step how to produce my own product.

Q: Why is it important to feature diverse members of the LGBTQ community in your podcast?

A: People all over the world might be in a minority such as LGBTQ, but they’re still different in sexuality, ethnicity, opinion, and perspective. I wanted to make sure I didn’t just interview people with similar backgrounds. I wanted to showcase diversity to raise the bar for learning while listening.

Check out the Identify podcast and the EuroPride Hub, now available through the end of August.

Superstitious? Data Says These Are the Luckiest Songs for Football (Soccer) Fans

June 12, 2018

When countries play “the world’s game,” a.k.a. soccer or football, it takes a lot to win: skill, strategy, teamwork, and sometimes a bit of luck. The result of any hotly-contested, 90-minute match could depend on a millimeter of soccer cleat, a freak ricochet off a defender’s leg, and too many other variables to count.

Where does this kind of game-winning luck come from? Could music have anything to do with it?

We had some fun determining the luckiest song for fans in each of these soccer-loving countries. We used anonymous, aggregated data about what fans were listening to when their team won or lost previous games, as well as a few other factors. (If you’re interested in exactly how we created the actually-quite-rigorous “superstition score” that chose these songs, see the methodology below.)

Here are the songs that, according to our scientifically-derived superstition score, will help each of these 12 football-loving countries win their games.

If you’re looking for something lucky to play before your team’s next match, search no further.

Argentina: Soda Stereo – “Cuando Pase El Temblor”

Australia and Germany: Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars

*Oddly enough, Australia and Germany share the same lucky song!

Brazil: Matheus & Kauan — Decide Aí – Na Praia / Ao Vivo

Colombia: Cali Y El Dandee – Por Fin Te Encontré

France: Snoop Dogg – Young, Wild & Free (feat. Bruno Mars)

Japan: ONE OK ROCK – Clock Strikes

Mexico: Panteon Rococo – La Dosis Perfecta

Perú: Los Abuelos De La Nada – Mil Horas

Spain: Beret – Dime Quien Ama de Verdad

Sweden: Nause – Dynamite (feat. Pretty Sister)

England: The Killers – Mr. Brightside

Methodology

If you want to geek out about this, here’s where these songs came from. We ranked songs in each country by a superstition score consisting of a weighted mix of the following metrics, normalized where appropriate by each song’s share of streaming, to accommodate for normal variation of overall streaming levels there:

  • Win-to-loss score: the ratio between a song’s streams in the country on winning days vs. losing days
  • Match day score: the ratio between a song’s streams in the country on game days vs. other days
  • Country relevance score: the ratio between a song’s streams in the country vs. elsewhere — i.e. how unique it is to that country
  • Country rank score: the song’s highest rank in a country on match days

Did we have to apply such rigor to answer this question? Probably not, but we figured that the teams are working hard and playing hard, so we should too.