Link to playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1Fa6lmYl4kVtLX?si=8x1sabTUShSZi8a7ivDm9A&pi=a-4jeLAbQ6Rz60
It’s that time of year, Spotify Wrapped! Here I do a deep dive into my most listened songs and artists as rounded up by Spotify and write my thoughts on each statistic.
(And just a heads up, but I’ll get a little political when talking about one of the songs here due to its subject matter. I hope you don’t mind my somewhat controversial take!)
My top genres
Lithuanian Pop
Pop
Estonian Pop
Ukrainian Pop
Latvian Pop
I want to call the graphics Spotify has made me a Baltic Burger, but the “bread” they used makes it look more like a Baltic Sandwich. While I’m amazed at myself for somehow getting all three Baltic states in my wrapped thanks to Eurovision and each of their national selections, I’m left wondering if streaming services will start categorizing songs from non-Anglophone countries into more distinct categories than just lumping the likes of, for example, Tvorchi, the Hardkiss, and Tember Blanche as just “Ukrainian Pop” when they have fairly distinct sounds from each other (Tvorchi being electropop artists, the Hardkiss more rock-oriented, and Tember Blanche bringing acoustic pop).
My sound town: Vilnius, Lithuania
I rounded up the country of origin for all the songs that appeared on my Spotify, and I counted 47 of them being from Lithuania!! I’ve gotten into a lot of Lithuanian music thanks to Eurovision and Lithuania’s national selection show for their representative, Pabandom iš Naujo, due to their eclectic musical selection in a wide variety of genres. This therefore isn’t that surprising, and I dream of actually visiting Lithuania one day as I’ve never been there before! Probably not next year, but I hope to visit Vilnius, Trakai, and Kaunas sooner rather than later!
My other most-played songs are still in Europe, with Latvia and Ukraine being tied for second with 6, and the UK coming third with 5 songs.
Most played song: Bo Burnham - Biden
This actually isn’t the first time this song appears on my Spotify Wrapped, as the song has actually ended up being my most played last year as well. While I’d have hoped for a non-comedy song topping my Spotify streaming stats, my rather mixed opinions on the current president of the United States has got me playing this song on repeat, especially considering he’s decided to run again for the 2024 election in spite of his low approval ratings and physical and cognitive abilities seemingly being less than ideal. Why insist on a second term and not pass on the torch to someone younger and more in touch with the current generation, and in much better shape to take charge of a country as powerful as the United States? The fact that the Democratic Party seems to just push Biden on its voters as the only candidate by blocking opportunities to hold primaries for the party, like in Florida, certainly doesn’t help improve my opinion on the incumbent president as the representative of the party that’s supposedly trying to “save democracy”. But I guess it’s better than whoever his main political opponent is, which makes him the “best case scenario”, supposedly…
Most played Eurovision song: Sudden Lights - Aijā (#10)
Latvia not qualifying for the Grand Final for Eurovision this year is still devastating to this day. This year was the first year I was following the national finals, seeing the Eurovision songs being selected leading up to the main event on May, and while Sudden Lights’ self-written, self-released entry didn’t catch my attention immediately in the studio version, upon seeing their live performance for the first time in Supernova (Latvia’s national selection) I was captivated by the amazing vocal performance as well as how well the song translated on stage; it was like a real rock concert by an experienced band. I grew more and more attached to it and before long it ended up being my favourite song this year in Eurovision. Seeing them not make it past their semi-final certainly hurt because of this (especially after using up all of my 20 votes to Latvia), but I was still happy to see Sudden Lights had quite a lot of fans on social media and an overwhelming amount of support when they didn’t qualify.
Most played song from a national selection for Eurovision: Gabrielius Vagelis - Šauksmas (#3)
Admittedly I don’t like a lot of ballads or slower songs, but I did have a playlist of slower songs to help me fall asleep whenever I had trouble sleeping, and Gabrielius Vagelis’ entry for this year’s Pabandom iš Naujo fit right in there as a smooth, gently-sung ballad. He performed it well live too! He’s tried to represent Lithuania for quite sometime now, but he hasn’t won his national selections yet; hope he makes it to Eurovision sometime!
Top 5 most played songs
Bo Burnham - Biden
Leon Somov & Monika Linkytė - Dūšia
Gabrielius Vagelis - Šauksmas
Rūta Loop - Call Me from the Cold
Gabrielius Vagelis - Man Moji
Most played artist: Gabrielius Vagelis
I’ve not only listened to his more recent national selection entries, but also songs from his two albums he’s released up until now, “Vėjai ir vanduo” (Wind and Water, 2019) and “Žydėsiu” (Bloom, 2023). (I don’t speak Lithuanian, so sorry if my translations are inaccurate!) Both albums are very much pop-oriented with a bit of electronic influences, and Gabrielius Vagelis has both written and co-written all of his songs. Even if you don’t speak Lithuanian, I do recommend his songs if you’re looking for a singer with nice smooth vocals, and a mix of ballads and dance-pop tracks!
Recommended tracks (non-Eurovision related): Man Moji, Vieni Du, Jūra
Most played Eurovision artist: Monika Linkytė
I feel like with the Lithuanian Eurovision artists this decade, they not only have great entries but also quite the intriguing pre- and post-ESC songs, and Monika Linkytė’s no exception! I especially enjoy her earlier electronically-oriented Lithuanian-language output, though I do like a lot of her songs in other genres as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what else she’ll release in the coming years!
Recommended tracks (non-Eurovision related): Dūšia, Po Dangum, Šilkas
Most played non-Eurovision related artist: Bo Burnham
While the Lithuanian electronic music producer Leon Somov hasn’t actually participated in Eurovision as far as I know, he has written some songs for the Lithuanian national selections over the past few years so I’ve not chosen him for this category. Bo Burnham, however, has no connection whatsoever to Eurovision so even though the song I’ve played by him the most is rather short, I thought I’d showcase him as quite the talented artist to check out! His pandemic-era musical comedy “Inside” is a fantastic watch, delivering clever commentary on the state of American politics as well as the effect of social isolation, aging, and the hostile online climate has on an individual, especially during the lockdown. While Covid has become less of an issue, I still think a lot of the songs hold up well, though if it’s because I’m that cynical or if the world still isn’t the best place post-lockdown, I can’t really say for sure.
Recommended tracks: Welcome to the Internet, How the World Works
Top 5 most played artists:
Gabrielius Vagelis
Monika Linkytė
Rūta Loop
Leon Somov
Bo Burnham
Other stats not covered by Spotify
Non-Eurovision artist with most number of songs played: Sisters on Wire
I’ve been listening to a fair bit of the album “Horizontai” from the Lithuanian indie-electropop band Sisters on Wire. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to non-Eurovision songs so I can’t give an accurate comparison to English-language artists (maybe Foster the People or Bleachers?), but I’d say their style fits very much in alternative radio stations in North America, if the lyrics are in English. They do have one English track in their newest album which I quite enjoy and recommend, “Lost”, but most of their songs are in Lithuanian. I’d say The Roop or Monika Linkytė are better introductory artists to Lithuanian music, but for those wanting to branch out, Sisters on Wire is well worth checking out.
Recommended tracks: Lost, Bėgantis Laikas, Mėlyna Mėlyna
Oldest released song: Sting - Fragile (1987)
The oldest released song on here is a song by Sting, an artist my dad used to listen to a lot during my childhood. I put this in my chill mix playlist, since it’s such a soothing listen and it still holds up to this day.
Newest released song: Sudden Lights - Mūsu Mīlestība (Our Love) (Aug 31 2023)
Sudden Lights does a cover of a 1983 song by Čikāgas Piecīši (Chicago Five), a Latvian-American folk band, and totally makes the sound their own by arranging it in their signature indie rock style.
Newest original song: Tvorchi & the Hardkiss - Mriynyky (Dreamers) (June 9 2023)
Ukraine’s 2023 Eurovision contestant Tvorchi teams up with the Hardkiss, one of the year’s hosts Julia Sanina’s band. The music is very much up my alley for both artists, and this collaboration combines Tvorchi’s electropop and the Hardkiss’ rock influences into quite the addictive listen! The song is bilingual, featuring lyrics in English and Ukrainian, and talks about being a dreamer in a new challenging world.
And finally, a big shout-out to the following artists who I got thank-you messages from:
Sudden Lights
Sisters on Wire
Loreen
Jessica Shy
Tvorchi
Käärijä
The Hardkiss
Ochman
Luke Black
Alessandra
Joker Out
Ačiū (Sisters on Wire and Jessica Shy), Dziękuję (Ochman), Дякую (the Hardkiss) to the artists saying thanks in their own languages!
