A quick glance at the Music Moves Europe Artist Chart learns that the UK is the champion of crossing borders, but which country is relatively coming in second place? Place your bets now…
Out of the 100 artists in the Top 100 chart this month, nearly half are of UK origin – 47 to be precise. Sweden comes second with nine entries, followed by France and Ireland with both seven. Germany and Belgium score both six acts in the chart.
But one could argue that a country with more inhabitants also has a better chance of having more musical talents. So what if you divide the total number of audience impressions by the number of inhabitants of the country of origin? Sounds difficult maybe, but it isn’t. For example, take Germany. The six German acts in the Top 100 combined have amassed an impact of 249 million impressions outside Germany, while there are currently 82 million Germans. So…249 divided by 82 is about a factor of 3.
If we conduct the same calculation for the UK, the factor is an impressive high of 92. But there is one country which nearly comes as high. Well, did you place your bets? It’s Ireland with a factor of 82! With only nearly five million inhabitants in Ireland compared to the 66 million of the UK they hold a whole bunch of talent: indie rockers Fontaines D.C, The Murder Capital and Inhaler, R’n’B singers Cosha and Biig Piig, rapper Barry Moore and indie singer Moncrieff.
Other countries with a relatively high ‘border crossing factor’ are Denmark (60), Belgium (57), Sweden (39), Austria (24) and Norway (20). Portugal and Italy score relatively low at the moment.
Enough macro stuff now, let’s get back to the micro stuff of this month’s chart. It was a great month for British indie band Sorry (now at #41), Dutch producer Lyzza (#44), French R’n’B singer James BKS (#47), French hip-hop star Gambi (#54), German pop singer Ilira (#58) and French dance-pop producers Goldstone (#64). All acts moved upwards ten notches or more this month.
There are also three new acts entering the Top 100 in the lower regions. At #92 we welcome young Swedish singer-songwriter Victor Leksell. With Swedish-language songs like Svag (Sony) he also scores airplay in Norway and Finland. And at #99 British R’n’B influenced indie band Easy Life comes in. Their songs Nice Guys and Dead Celebrities (both Universal) are popular among the tastemaker radio shows across Europe – it also helped that the band was mentioned in the BBC Sound Of 2020 shortlist. Finally, at #100 there’s a new entry for British indie pop band Sophie & The Giants. Their tracks Break The Silence and Runaway (both Universal) are spreading to Germany and Rumania.
Menno Visser
Music journalist and radio professional from The Netherlands
