10 International Songs That Charted in the US

There’s something special about music that can transcend language and cultural barriers. While songs will certainly chart in the countries where it’s their first language, it’s less common to see, for example, a German song on a US chart. For a song to break past its initial country of origin, it has to have a universal appeal where a listener not understanding the lyrics doesn’t matter. There have been some massive hits that have transcended their countries of origin, some even hitting #1 in other countries. Anyone who read the Spotify Stats blog published early this year in January (You can check it out here), that there were a ton of songs to come out of the US that charted globally. Some of those examples include Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” and Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.” There would be a lot of US music that charts elsewhere, so to make this blog a little more interesting, I’ll be focusing on songs that charted in the US that come from other countries. With the rise of K-pop, there has been a recent rise in songs from those artists hitting high on the charts, but this list will also touch on songs that charted as early as the 1950s. Let’s get into it!   

“Gangnam Style” - Psy 

Anyone who was tuned into music from the early 2010s will remember this viral hit. After reaching number one on South Korea’s Gaon chart, "Gangnam Style" went viral worldwide a month after its release. The song overtook Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" to reach the number one position on the YouTube Top 100 Music Videos and eventually overtook Girls' Generation's "Gee" to become the most viewed K-pop video on YouTube. “Gangnam Style” peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, which at the time was the highest charting song by a South Korean artist. By the end of 2012, it had topped the music charts of more than 30 countries.  

While it had a good beat that anyone could bump, it also had the artist Psy doing a dance in the music video that boosted it to become a cultural phenomenon. Everyone and their mother were learning how to Gangnam Style. It was played at school dances. It was played at weddings, at clubs, even in politics! British Prime Minister David Cameron tried out the dance, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who hailed it as "a force for world peace. Barack Obama cited the success of "Gangnam Style" as an example of how people around the world are being "swept up" by the Korean Wave of culture. Little did people know at the time just how much K-pop would explode later on in the 2010s. The song itself is poking fun at the kinds of people (posers) who are trying very hard to be something that they're not by saying they’ve got Gangnam style, while the people of that high class would never proclaim that they are. 

Life Goes On - BTS  

While the K-pop boy band BTS debuted in 2013, they didn’t completely blow up internationally until 2017. They were the first Korean ensemble to receive a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). While there are a ton of hits to look to when it comes to BTS who have had at least 15 of their songs hit the Billboard Hot 100 in the last eight years, including “Dynamite” the group’s first English-only track, I wanted to highlight “Life Goes On” since it was their first number one hit sung predominantly in Korean.  

Released in November 2020, “Life Goes On” was the optimistic pandemic anthem the world needed. Co-written by RM, Suga, and J-Hope, the opening track off the band’s BE album. The song was all about learning to live with the current situation. That current situation was the COVID-19 Pandemic. Beyond the diehard fans that helped boost it on the charts, it also held larger appeal for its hopeful message of refusing to give up during a time that many felt hopeless. It was BTS's third number-one single in the United States in exactly three months and marked the fastest accumulation of three number-one songs on the chart in 42 years since the Bee Gees, which is pretty impressive. It didn’t stay number one for long, but it still remained on the charts.  

Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu) - Domenico Modugno 

This is one of the older non-English language songs to make it on the US charts. “Volare,” sung by Italian singers Domenico Modugno and Johnny Dorelli, was written by Modugno with Franco Migliacci. It reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958, spending five total weeks at No. 1 before winning both record of the year and song of the year at the first annual Grammy Awards in 1959. Globally, it became one of the most famous Italian songs and had the greatest commercial success ever throughout the world. The word that opens the chorus, Volare, was even registered with SIAE as an alternative title of the same. The song also participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958, finishing in third place.  

The origins of where the song was inspired vary depending on who is asked. Modugno has said the song came to him one morning while observing the blue sky with his wife. Migliacci instead claimed that the idea came to him, observing the reproductions of Marc Chagall's paintings. While it reached number one in Italy, it also reached number one for 5 weeks in the United States and sold an estimated 19 million copies worldwide. If you look on the song’s Wikipedia, you’ll see it’s been covered by hundreds of artists since its release. It’s the only Italian song to have made it this far up on the US charts. 

Sukiyaki - Kyu Sakamoto 

“Sukiyaki” was first released in Japan in 1961. The song topped the charts in a number of countries, including the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. The song grew to become one of the world's best-selling singles of all time, selling over 13 million copies worldwide. It’s sung by Kyu Sakamoto but was written by lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer Hachidai Nakamura. The lyrics tell the story of a man who looks up while he is walking so that his tears will not fall. Ei wrote the lyrics while walking home, expressing his frustrations about the 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty. Yet to make it more relatable, the lyrics were kept generic at points so someone listening could relate it to a lost love.  

The song has been described as a metaphor for the emerging post-World War II global expansion of Japan onto the world scene. It was the only single by an Asian artist to top the Hot 100 until the 2020 release of "Dynamite" by the South Korean band BTS. "Sukiyaki" also peaked at number eighteen on the Billboard R&B chart and spent five weeks at number one on the Middle of the Road chart. The song sold over 13 million copies worldwide.  

99 Luftballoons - NENA 

“99 Luftballoons” is a song you’ve probably heard before, as it’s continued to make its rounds on the radio and in party playlists. An English-language version titled "99 Red Balloons" (German: Neunundneunzig Rote Luftballons), with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released by Nena after so much success with the original German version across Europe and Japan. The English version is not a direct translation of the German original and contains lyrics with a somewhat different meaning. Interestingly enough, the English-language version did not chart, while the German-language recording did. The lyrics have a pretty dark meaning in the original German version, discussing a moment when a cataclysmic war results from the otherwise harmless flight of balloons and causes devastation on all sides without a victor: "99 years of war left no room for victors." 

American and Australian audiences wound up preferring the original German version, which became a very successful non-English-language song, topping charts in both countries, reaching number one on the Cashbox chart, Kent Music Report, and number two on the Billboard Hot 100, behind "Jump" by Van Halen. It was Nena’s only US hit, but it’s still making its rounds in the US today.  

Macarena - Los Del Rio 

While the original “Macarena” was recorded by the Spanish pop group Los Del Rio, it was the Miami-based group Bayside Boys' remix that helped boost its popularity. What helped make it catchier was adding a section with English lyrics. It initially peaked at No. 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1995, but the Bayside Boys mix gave it another revival in 1996. The remix was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks. One major thing that helped it blow up was the dance attached to it that turned it into a cultural phenomenon that continued to play at parties into the 2000s and beyond.  

The song was given the title of “No. 1 Greatest One-Hit Wonder of All Time" by VH1 in 2002, and in 2012, it was ranked No. 7 on Billboard's All Time Top 100. In 2023, Billboard ranked "Macarena" number 500 in their list of Best Pop Songs of All Time. There’s nothing like a group dance to bring people together. We saw it with Gangnam Style, too.  

Un Verano Sin Ti - Bad Bunny 

I’m taking an opportunity to not only highlight one song by Bad Bunny but his entire album that won a slew of accolades. Un Verano Sin Ti, which translates to A Summer Without You, is the fourth studio album by Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny, which is an amalgamation of many genres including reggaeton, psychedelia, afrobeats, hip-hop, jazz, samba, and trap. This was Bad Bunny’s second number one album on the US Billboard 200 and the second all-Spanish language album to top the chart. Its popularity kept it at the top of the charts for 13 weeks and even made it on the Billboard 200 Year-End Chart as the best-performing album of the year. This accolade made it the first Spanish-language album to do so.  

The accolades continue to roll in, so I’m going to copy directly from their Wikipedia. “It was also the first album by a Latin artist to reach 10 billion streams on Spotify. At the 23rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards, Un Verano Sin Ti won Best Urban Music Album, while at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, it became the first Spanish-language album to earn a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year” (Source). Since this is about international songs that got popular, looking at the streaming numbers, “Me Porto Bonito” is the most popular track, but it’s just one of many good tracks that have won Bad Bunny accolades. 

Despacito - Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee  

Written by Fonsi, Erika Ender, and Daddy Yankee, “Despacito” (which translates to “Slowly”) is a Puerto Rican hit that was released in January 2017, and the remix featuring Justin Bieber came out in April of the same year. Having Bieber attached helped it chart in more countries, reaching number one positions for weeks. Many journalists have credited “Despacito” as bringing Spanish-language pop back into the mainstream. The song’s lyrics about desiring a sexual relationship, performed in a smooth and romantic way, were something that fit well into this era of music, and its reggaeton and Latin pop combination made the song addictive. You couldn’t escape it upon release. It was everywhere. 

It received many awards at the Latin Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Urban Fusion/Performance, and Best Short Form Music Video. "Despacito" has also been ranked among the best Latin songs of all time and the best songs of 2017 by various publications, making it one of the most successful Spanish-language tracks in pop-music history.  

Dominique - The Singing Nun (Soeur Sourire) 

“Dominique” is a French language song that was written and performed by Belgian singer Jeannine Deckers, who goes by the stage name Sœur Sourire ("Sister Smile" in French) or The Singing Nun. Upon its release in 1963, it was a top-selling record in 11 countries.  The song is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-born priest and founder of the Dominican Order, that the Smiling Nun was a part of. An English version did come out with lyrics written by Noël Regney. In addition to French and English, Deckers recorded versions in Dutch, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese. 

It topped the charts in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and reached the Top 5 in Norway, Denmark, Ireland, and South Africa. It also made the Top 10 in the Netherlands, West Germany, and the United Kingdom. It was very popular in the US, particularly with the song reaching and staying at No. 1 on the Top 40 radio station WABC in New York City. “Dominique’ was also No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. The song actually has a connection to another song in this list. It was the second foreign language song to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1963, the first being "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto.   

La Bamba - Ritchie Valens, Los Lobos 

The Mexican folk song adapted by Richard Valens, also known as “La Bomba,” was a top 40 hit on the US charts in 1958. There’s a fascinating history with the song dating back hundreds of years. “La Bamba” is in the son jarocho musical style, which originated in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and combines Spanish, indigenous, Afro-Mexican, and Afro-Caribbean musical elements. (Source). "La Bamba" likely originated in the last years of the 17th century, in 1683, during a slave uprising known as the Bambarria. Over the years, “La Bamba” has been played at events such as weddings, with the bride and the groom tying a ribbon together on their toes and dancing to “La Bamba” as a symbol of love. Other interesting origins include that the song was meant to satirize the efforts made by the viceroy of Mexico to defend the citizens of the port of Veracruz from pirates. The dance moves are meant to imitate a sailor "dancing the bomba (water pump)” or pumping water.  

The lyrics were always encouraged to be made up, so there are at least 100 versions around. Valens created a version that merged with rock and roll that paid off greatly, ranking 98 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Rock and Roll in 1999, and No. 59 on VH1's 100 Greatest Dance Songs in 2000. Valens’ version was also inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame. Lastly, it was the only non-English song to make it in the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list by Rolling Stone in the 2000s. There was another version put out by Los Lobos as they marketed the 1987 movie La Bamba. It was the fourth wholly non-English language song to top the Billboard Hot 100.  

It’s nice to see that in a country built on being a melting pot of many cultures, songs that are not in English can continue to chart and have an impact within the US. This list varies from the 1950s up to now, which is promising that a song’s lyrics do not need to be in a language understood and appreciated by all who listen. Which of these songs did you already know and love? Which were new finds for you? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading.  

Written by Kristen Petronio

 https://www.billboard.com/lists/non-english-songs-hot-100-top/