On the occasion of the 2019 elections to the European Parliament (23–26 May), Spotify published a playlist called Get Vocal, Europe! and alerted users in EU member countries of its existence. But this is not a first: Election-themed playlists have been published before by Spotify. The earliest example I was able to find are the November 2018 midterm elections in the US on the occasion of which playlists were published with songs that were “uniquely popular” in individual states around that time.
The Get Vocal, Europe! playlist takes a different approach: There are no separate playlists for individual countries. Rather, there is one playlist that features one song by an artist from each of the 28 countries that are currently members of the European Union. Transnational elections seem particularly apt for such an approach. Despite services like Spotify, music tends to have a hard time crossing borders – even within the European Union. And whenever there is a language barrier, the likelihood of a song becoming popular in another country is close to zero. The Get Vocal, Europe! playlist won’t change that, but it is a welcome opportunity to eavesdrop on the music taste of the neighbours for once.
But what is on the Get Vocal, Europe! playlist? Outside Spotify, I have not been able to find a full list of the featured artists and songs. Even within Spotify, there is no information with respect to the countries the artists are supposed to represent. The table below gives this information and adds the duration of the songs as well as the language they use (in the ISO 639-1 format). Links in the artist column point to Wikipedia articles in English (wherever available) or local languages. Links in the title column point to lyrics websites (mostly Genius). Additions and corrections are welcome. Enjoy – and get vocal!
| Country | Artist | Song | ⏱ | 💬 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria 🇦🇹 | Bilderbuch | LED go | 4:27 | DE |
| Belgium 🇧🇪 | Angèle | Balance ton quoi | 3:09 | FR |
| Bulgaria 🇧🇬 | Papi Hans | Твой (Tvoi) | 3:37 | BG |
| Croatia 🇭🇷 | Jelena Rozga | Moje proljeće | 3:54 | HR |
| Cyprus 🇨🇾 | Μιχάλης Χατζηγιάννης (Michalis Hatzigiannis) | Το Καλοκαίρι Μου (To kalokairi mou) | 3:39 | EL |
| Czech Republic 🇨🇿 | Milion+ feat. Kamil Hoffman, Hasan & Nik Tendo | Bude líp | 3:06 | CS |
| Denmark 🇩🇰 | Lord Siva & Vera | Paris | 2:51 | EN |
| Estonia 🇪🇪 | Pluuto feat. Nublu | Mesimagus | 2:30 | ET |
| Finland 🇫🇮 | JVG | Ikuinen vappu | 3:10 | FI |
| France 🇫🇷 | Aya Nakamura | Djadja | 2:51 | FR |
| Germany 🇩🇪 | MERO | Wolke 10 | 2:53 | DE |
| Greece 🇬🇷 | Snik | Μόνος μου (Mónos mou) | 4:00 | EL |
| Hungary 🇭🇺 | Halott Pénz | Amikor feladnád | 3:18 | HU |
| Ireland 🇮🇪 | Saint Sister & Jafaris | Causing trouble (Kormac Remix) | 3:48 | EN |
| Italy 🇮🇹 | Mahmood | Soldi | 3:15 | IT |
| Latvia 🇱🇻 | Ansis feat. Kristīne Pāže | Zemes stunda | 3:03 | LV |
| Lithuania 🇱🇹 | Vidas Bareikis & 8 Kambarys | Ežero dugne | 3:25 | LT |
| Luxembourg 🇱🇺 | Seed to Tree | Within me | 4:40 | EN |
| Malta 🇲🇹 | Ira Losco | Hey Now | 3:51 | EN |
| Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Duncan Laurence | Arcade | 3:04 | EN |
| Poland 🇵🇱 | Bedoes & Kubi Producent feat. Taco Hemingway | Chłopaki nie płaczą | 3:32 | PL |
| Portugal 🇵🇹 | Plutónio | Meu deus | 3:42 | PT |
| Romania 🇷🇴 | Delia & The Motans | Rămâi | 3:28 | RO |
| Slovakia 🇸🇰 | Nerieš feat. BassKid | Pokoj | 3:51 | SK |
| Slovenia 🇸🇮 | Siddharta | Medrevesa | 4:33 | SL |
| Spain 🇪🇸 | Don Patricio feat. Cruz Cafuné | Contando lunares | 3:40 | ES |
| Sweden 🇸🇪 | Zara Larsson | Don’t worry bout me | 3:29 | EN |
| United Kingdom 🇬🇧 | Mabel | Don’t call me up | 2:58 | EN |
Update (20 May 2019)
For reasons unclear to me, Spotify has modified the playlist: Spain is no longer represented by Con altura by Rosalía & J Balvin feat. El Guincho (length: 2:42). That song was replaced by another Spanish song – one starting with some lines of broken Italian, interestingly. I have updated the list above.
Update (15 June 2019)
Spotify seems to have deleted the playlist. As older ‘Get vocal’ playlists, created on the occasion of 2018 elections in the US, still exist, it is unclear to me why the playlist disappeared after such a short time. You can use the search function to dig up copies of the playlist that individual users created.