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These are the Spotify hits Norwegians listened to in 2016

Want to build an end-of-year playlist Norwegian style? Here are 2016's most streamed tracks in Norway.

Published: 8 December 2016 09:27 CET

These are the Spotify hits Norwegians listened to in 2016

Hear all of the tracks that blasted through Norwegians' headphones this year. Photo: Iris

1. Faded by Alan Walker

Bergen's Alan Walker had a smash international hit with 'Faded', so its appearance at the top of the Norwegian chart is hardly a surprise. The 19-year-old, who was born in Northampton to an English father and Norwegian mother but moved to Bergen at two, also cracked the Norway top ten with 'Sing Me to Sleep'.

2. Cheap Thrills, Sia

3. One Dance by Drake (ft. WizKid and Kyla)

4. Don’t Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers

5. Jovial by Freddy Kalas

Like fellow countryman Alan Walker, Freddy Kalas claimed two of the top ten most-streamed tracks amongst Norwegians. The Drammen native rode to fame in part through his participation in the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, where his track 'Feel Da Rush' made it to the final four.

6. Sing Me to Sleep, Alan Walker

7. The Ocean by Mike Perry and Shy Martin

Some neighbourly love from the Norwegians for Swedish DJ and producer Mike Perry's track.

8. Feel Da Rush by Freddy Kalas

9. Arigato by Julie Bergan

Yet another homegrown talent claimed one of Norway's most-streamed songs this year. Jule Bergan is also a Melodi Grand Prix veteran, which certainly helped the 22-year-old push her track 'Arigato' to the Norwegian masses.

10. Sex by Cheat Codes x Kris Kross Amsterdam

Curious about how Norwegians' music tastes stack up against the rest of the world? Spotify said its top five most-streamed tracks globally were:

1. One Dance (feat. WizKid and Kyla) – Drake

2. I Took A Pill in Ibiza – Seeb Remix – Mike Posner

3. Don’t Let Me Down (feat. Daya) – The Chainsmokers

4. Work (feat. Drake) – Rihanna

5. Cheap Thrills – Sia

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New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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