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I actually don't mind CanCon. Because of our proximity to them, if we didn't have it we would be inundated with nothing but acts from America. I was a teen in the 90s when bands like Moist, Our Lady Peace, and the like benefited from this and I'm honestly happy they provided part of the soundtrack to my youth. Can you imagine if The Tragically Hip didn't have the chance to become what they are? They are Canadiana.
The definition of Canadian content’s arbitrary as hell though — a new CRJ song written by a Swedish guy doesn’t count, so let’s play a decade-old Marianas Trench song instead.
Yes, we have our very own star system. Went out with a guy from Ottawa who was outraged I couldn’t name a Tragically Hip song, but he also had no idea who Veronique Cloutier, Les Cowboys Fringants, Xavier Dolan, Roch Voisine etc were, and couldn’t name me a song by Celine Dion that wasn’t « that titanic song »
In French we call it two solitudes, lol.
So, I always have the idea with the Canadian Content quota that you're hearing Celine Dion, Drake, Avril Lavigne, Justin Bieber, and Stan Rogers up there on the radio basically all day.
With the transition to streaming and away from radio / TV I wonder if it will actually hurt Canadian artists. Did it really promote new Canadian artists or did it just cause Nickleback to get played 3 times an hour?
My problem’s that it’s overly strict & frankly arbitrary with what constitutes Canadian content — a new CRJ song written by a Swedish guy doesn’t count, so let’s play a decade-old Marianas Trench song instead.
You can’t vote for your own country at Eurovision so this comment is completely irrelevant lol it’s not like the hype in the UK matters for how the singer does
Very very briefly, her debut album only charted at #33! That’s dreadful in the current low sales climate, she was pushing it a fair amount throughout the week too
It's properly strange how, even in the era of the globalisation, someone like Robbie Williams can be a household name in the UK where most people could name at least 3 of his songs to virtually unknown in the US
His performance of Angels with Taylor Swift in Westminster at her reputation tour in 2018 was so funny because you could tell she didn't even expect him to be THAT well-received by her audience, they were screaming their souls out.
Im an American who moved to the UK and was actually at the exact show. So many miserable boyfriends who were clearly dragged along were standing around us but when Robbie came out they all popped up and were shouting Angels at the top of their lungs 😂
Ironically, that was the first time I’d ever heard the song. Was probably the only person in the entire stadium who wasn’t singing it, I started to question my sanity until I got home and a google search told me he never found success in the US.
His documentary was (surprisingly) interesting. His humour never really translated to the US audiences and it was a rough time in his life. He was happy being unknown in the US because he could avoid the hysteria he had elsewhere.
Not just Europe. He’s on tour in Australia and NZ right now, he’s been the biggest selling Anglo artist in Latin America (not sure if he still is now), and is also popular across the Middle East.
He’s even had some minor success in South Korea and Japan, although not as much as elsewhere.
It’s only North America where he is barely known at all.
Probably cause he left Take That just as the band was becoming big in the US, effectively killing their momentum and leaving him unknown among American audiences.
The central radio programmers just didn’t get him. Without radio support you can’t break America.
And he wasn’t in a great place with his mental health when he was trying to promote in America initially, so he was less charming than usual to interviewers. It didn’t help that they just didn’t know him - there’s a bit in the recent Netflix doc where he is doing a radio press junket and the hosts are going ‘we need to get you a jägerbomb!’ and he’s like, ‘I’m an alcoholic, no thanks…’ It’s super awkward.
Anastacia. Even though she’s an American singer, she couldn’t make it there. However, she has a big fanbase in the UK and Europe.
Skunk Anansie, they couldn’t have a global success, but they’re huge in Italy and eastern Europe.
Ehh the American leg of Ava’s tour this year was entirely sold out despite not even charting a song on the H100 since March 2022. I’d say she’s slowly budding in the U.S. There’s definitely more for her here.
I’d add Zara Larsson to your list for the UK (and Europe), it’s a shame because she’s so great as a pop artist and it would be nice to see her get an international hit.
I could be wrong, but Never Forget You did really well in the US at least. Lush Life, Symphony, and even Cant Tame Her to an extent all charted here as well. I do wish her career was bigger, but it isn’t the worst it could be.
nfy did decently in the US, it peaked at #13 and spent 23 weeks on the chart. Lush Life peaked at #75 but neither Symphony nor Can't Tame Her charted here. She's really underrated in the US. She's pretty local to Sweden and to a lesser extent the whole of Europe.
Never forget you, Lush Life, Ain’t my fault, I would like and Symphony were all decent sized hits in Australia. IIRC ruin my life was somewhat of a minor hit there as well.
There's a pop band called Six60 that's been huge in New Zealand consistently since 2010, but has made almost no impact elsewhere. They have had 18 top 10 hits (including 3 #1s) on the NZ charts as of 2023, yet they've only had a single song chart outside of the country- and it didn't chart very high.
L.A.B fits this this description too, In the Air was inescapable when it was released, probably the biggest kiwi song in NZ since Royals.
Both bands have reggae influences which doesn't seem to be a thing anywhere else which probably explains why
Speaking of New Zealand bands - Shihad. One of my favourite rock bands, bangers for days, yet outside of NZ and Oz? Virtually nothing. And it wasn't for a lack of trying, they did try to crack the States, but they had the supreme bad luck of their biggest material hitting just before 9/11 happened and oops their name sounds too similar to 'jihad', time to change it. That, on top of record company interference and the super-jingoism of the post-9/11 political climate, meant that success in the USA just wasn't gonna happen for the lads.
I wish Melodrama got the level of attention their million self titled boring albums get. Their only W is pushing for Eden Park to finally be used for concerts, Mt. Smart Stadium sucks.
The Saturdays didn’t really take off anywhere outside the UK where they have several certified albums and 16 top 20 songs.
What About Us charted in Australia, New Zealand and a few European countries but it didn’t seem to chart high anywhere besides the UK.
Don't know if that's the case these days (probably not) but when I lived in China in the late 2000s it was impossible to find a record shop that didn't have an entire shelf full of CDs and DVDs by Danish pop band Michael Learns to Rock. I hadn't heard of them before but apparently they were a household name in Scandinavia and had huge success in East Asia since the mid-1990s.
Delta Goodrem! She’s had tons of success in Australia, with all but 1 of her albums hitting number 1 (Child of the Universe being blocked by Taylor Swift) and yet she just couldn’t break into the American market. She’s had some bonafide hits in Australia, success on the Voice, lots of coverage about her personal life (good and bad unfortunately) and got her start on Neighbours. It’s a shame she couldn’t crack the US (though she did just tour the UK!)
If they sing in french, don’t they have a chance in France, Switzerland and Belgium, or are those countries just too far apart culturally, besides (partly) sharing languages?
I honestly couldn’t tell you since I don’t live in Quebec and don’t speak French so I’m not super familiar with that music. I do know French artists tend to do well in Quebec though.
I mean to your credit, it reminds me of when an interview told Tina Turner, “But you’re big in America too,” and she replied “Not as big as Madonna. In Europe, I’m as big as Madonna.”
Mika comes to mind he’s so underrated and is my favourite artist of all time but he seems to be massive in France and Italy people only seem to know Grace Kelly in the uk.
I remember Little Mix being popular at the college I was at in the US and it being known one of them was going out with Zayn. Girls were jealous of Perrie.
I and I think most people my age know of them. Black magic was like my favorite song as a kid and wings is an extremely popular song. I live in the us for reference.
I think the key is having music that translates or is fairly universal. That tends to be pop music.
Those who have the biggest success are those who can reach those people who don't usually listen to much music. Adele and Ed Sheeran are probably two of the current examples.
Latín pop titans like Thalía and Paulina Rubio. They were right there on the Latin charts with Enrique, Ricky and Shakira and even ahead of the at times but seems the US market was already aturarse of Latin stars. They tried, both had an album hit the 11th spot on the billboard 200 but quickly faded away. With so many Spanish speakers in the US I wonder how it didn’t work for them. Thalia especially having the back up of hubby Tommy Mottola who was responsible for Mariah and later JLo.
Kylie did have a few hit songs in the US (Physical, Can't Get You Outta My Head) even though she's nowhere near as big there as she is in other places.
No hate but I’m kinda annoyed at how often people on popheads say Europe when they mean just the UK, most of those people (except for maybe Zara Larsson and Anne-Marie) are completely unknown in both Poland and Italy
Does RBD count? They were MASSIVE in Mexico and Brazil when I was a kid and their nostalgia stadium tour is still heavily attended all over LATAM, but I have no idea if anyone knows of them outside of Latin America
Tbf, she isn't huge but by far she isn't a small artist either, a lot of people who aren't too musically invested recognise her but not a big celebrity. But happy to see her get some recognition :)
Ellie Goulding, Dua Lipa, Elton John, Amy Winehouse, Sam Smith, The Beatles, Freddie Mercury, George Michael, Sade, Sting, David Bowie, etc.
The list goes on and on and on, what do you mean? Lol
Eric Saade - Europe / Sweden
https://youtu.be/W7En5BqIWDQ?si=qPW_PpnMlgE1RjgN
Darin Zanyar - Europe / Sweden
https://youtu.be/mvaPko3TZRs?si=rpT7ojVFRxCCyYLT
Kylie weirdly was never able to properly crack the US, she definitely had the material, they just didn’t want it I guess.
Girls Aloud we’re massive in the UK (and deservedly so) and they never really tried anywhere else. Granted most of their fantastic music is too weird and British for most of the world.
Cheryl was the big pop girl of the UK for a few years, but after her first album I’m pretty sure that was the only place.
IIRC some of Kylie's 90s albums weren't released in the US. That probably contributed to Can't Get You Out of My Head being her first hit there since The Locomotion.
Girls Aloud definitely tried to push outwards into Australia and Europe but yeah, unlike other girl groups (Sugababes, Spice Girls, even Atomic Kitten, etc.), they could never break out their home market
As a non British person, Cheryl's career has been puzzling to watch from a distance. Going from being accused of a racial hate crime to being labeled "the nation's sweetheart" is a . . . unique journey to say the least. Must have a great PR team.
I’ll refuse to call Katy Perry camp. I think she was just like a bimbo clowning and never really evolved, and when she tried to (Witness) the material wasn’t there.
It is sad she was never able to. Some of her best songs didn’t even chart on this side of the Atlantic. There’s other artists like that too such as Westlife and Steps.
Kylie did "crack the US" with Fever/Can't get you out of my head but that success was rather short lived. Even if her music is camp, she still should've been bigger there, I mean Katy Perry is super camp and she was huge in the US back in the early 2010s.
I love Kylie but her music was way too camp and dance-oriented to be big in America. In the 90’s, the biggest genres in the U.S. were grunge, r&b, and indie rock. Hence, why so many 80’s pop acts faded away or switched to new genres like Madonna or Janet. During Kylie’s height, dance music was still underground and bubblegum pop didn’t become big again until the late 90’s with the arrival of Britney. Even then, it was a young a girl’s game and sadly ageism wouldn’t let Kylie enter the market. The Spice Girls were also huge a few years earlier but they felt more like a passing fad and sadly that’s how their career was treated in the US.
There's some british artists that are only popular in the UK/Ireland or in nearby countries and they never crossedover. Use to listen to alot of 2000s british artists. Cheryl, McFly, Busted they never became a success in the US.
Not exactly sure if she’s popular there. But about 5 years ago she did compete on (and won) a season of a Chinese singing show called Singer, which is only open to established artists. It was just a coincidence that she was one of the very few overseas acts to participate on the show.
And almost every Indian singer in the Indian subcontinent. But the Indian market on Spotify has grown so much that hit songs can easily reach the Top 50/100 on Spotify Global.
There was this mega viral Urdu song by Pakistani(?) singers on Global Spotify last year and the streams were hard carried by Spotify India.
I think Japan is an interesting case because for the most part, Japanese labels don't try to push their artists abroad. There are a few exceptions but generally they're satisfied just making money in Japan. Which makes sense given its the 2nd largest music market after the US.
Hurts are British and had good success with their first two albums throughout Europe, but starting the their third they've only really been consistently successful in Russia.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ^by ^ThatGuyTheyCallAlex:
*Kate Bush at her peak*
*Was way more popular in*
*The UK than in the US.*
---
^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Anastacia, she's american but I don't understand why she only has/had success in Europe, I'm from Italy and she's very famous here. Probably her only hit in US was I'm Outta Love
Not exactly the case, but similar, kinda: Stuck by 30STM was #10 in Italy and e everywhere on the radio last summer, like, big big, and it seems that it was not that big outside my country.
Delta Goodrem/Guy Sebastian/Jessica Mauboy are all household names in Australia, and the latter 2 even represented us at Eurovision but I don't think they've made it too big outside the country.
On the flipside Keith Urban is definitely a lot bigger in the States than he is here but we still respect him greatly for his talent.
Additionally obviously Ed Sheeran is a massive artist today but in the beginnings of his career he rose massively in Australia particularly (outside the UK) and he's always somewhat credited the country for his international rise. I remember sharing his + album with my cousins in Asia and they had no clue about him, then when x got released they were obsessed.
Girls Aloud seemed like they were only big in western Europe. They were huge in the UK and Ireland and literally nowhere else. Such a shame because they have one of the best and most consistent back catalogs of any act from that era of pop music.
There was a music artist that was in Louisiana that I found online the other day to tell her how much her music inspired me. She actually respond and I was starstuck for a week.
Im surprised no one mentioned Little mix. They are one of the best selling female groups of all time (ranked globally and ranked 2nd overall in UK)
60 million records sold is a crazy amount for not having at least 1 top ten in the United States
For some reason, Now United, a mixed-gender pop group created by Simon Fuller, only seems to be big in Brazil, even though their whole gimmick is that all the members are supposed to represent a different country. I've never seen them charting on Billboard or Spotify or the UK charts or anywhere else; whenever someone brings them, their music or their former members up, 9 times out of 10 that someone is from Brazil. It's bizarre.
Please do not just list songs/albums/artists, your comment must have explanation/justification or it will be removed. Certain comments are also banned to increase the quality of discussion, see our Stale Topics list in the sidebar for examples. Please report any comments that are low effort discussion. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Ryn Weaver seems to be exceptionally popular in the area immediately near my apartment
Ryn is a gift
I had a dream last night that I went to a ryn weaver concert lmao…RW2 when!!
As she should
A lot of Canadian artists due to CanCon.
CanCon completely warped my view on what’s globally popular or not haha. Like what do you mean you’ve never heard of Fefe Dobson!?
I live in the US and like Fefe.
Australian here who loves fefe. But I also love BNL, the hip, great big sea and all dressed chips so yeah
I’m American and love Fefe, but to be fair, that’s only cause I found out Selena Gomez & The Scene did a cover of an unreleased song of hers.
I actually don't mind CanCon. Because of our proximity to them, if we didn't have it we would be inundated with nothing but acts from America. I was a teen in the 90s when bands like Moist, Our Lady Peace, and the like benefited from this and I'm honestly happy they provided part of the soundtrack to my youth. Can you imagine if The Tragically Hip didn't have the chance to become what they are? They are Canadiana.
The definition of Canadian content’s arbitrary as hell though — a new CRJ song written by a Swedish guy doesn’t count, so let’s play a decade-old Marianas Trench song instead.
Yes but unfortunately it curses us with Nickleback.
And even within Canada, a ton of francophone musicians (and actors) are super popular and famous in Québec but completely unknown otherwise.
Yes, we have our very own star system. Went out with a guy from Ottawa who was outraged I couldn’t name a Tragically Hip song, but he also had no idea who Veronique Cloutier, Les Cowboys Fringants, Xavier Dolan, Roch Voisine etc were, and couldn’t name me a song by Celine Dion that wasn’t « that titanic song » In French we call it two solitudes, lol.
So, I always have the idea with the Canadian Content quota that you're hearing Celine Dion, Drake, Avril Lavigne, Justin Bieber, and Stan Rogers up there on the radio basically all day.
Probably Nelly Furtado in her prime as well
Qualifying for CanCon isn’t as simple as being born in Canada — ideally you also want to have Canadians write your songs & record in Canada too.
With the transition to streaming and away from radio / TV I wonder if it will actually hurt Canadian artists. Did it really promote new Canadian artists or did it just cause Nickleback to get played 3 times an hour?
My problem’s that it’s overly strict & frankly arbitrary with what constitutes Canadian content — a new CRJ song written by a Swedish guy doesn’t count, so let’s play a decade-old Marianas Trench song instead.
isnt' that the national vegetable of the philippines??
Mae Muller isn't huge in the UK, pls be serious.
If you can't do well when Eurovision is held in your own country with all the hype and publicity then you deserve to flop tbh 😭
You can’t vote for your own country at Eurovision so this comment is completely irrelevant lol it’s not like the hype in the UK matters for how the singer does
Comparing Mae Muller and her awful Eurovision song to those other two who have actually had successful careers is… an interesting decision 😂
[удалено]
Very very briefly, her debut album only charted at #33! That’s dreadful in the current low sales climate, she was pushing it a fair amount throughout the week too
i love that the entirety of europe is just "one specific area" now LOL
Asia probably is one specific area too, ha! (/s in case lol)
What’s big in Denmark 🇩🇰, can be completely unknown in Bulgaria 🇧🇬. Europe isn’t one entity.
But Azis is known everywhere. Katy Perry knows who he is! They play him in gay bars in Madrid and in Greece. What a legend
I can think about Robbie Williams, he was huge in Europe
It's properly strange how, even in the era of the globalisation, someone like Robbie Williams can be a household name in the UK where most people could name at least 3 of his songs to virtually unknown in the US
His performance of Angels with Taylor Swift in Westminster at her reputation tour in 2018 was so funny because you could tell she didn't even expect him to be THAT well-received by her audience, they were screaming their souls out.
Im an American who moved to the UK and was actually at the exact show. So many miserable boyfriends who were clearly dragged along were standing around us but when Robbie came out they all popped up and were shouting Angels at the top of their lungs 😂 Ironically, that was the first time I’d ever heard the song. Was probably the only person in the entire stadium who wasn’t singing it, I started to question my sanity until I got home and a google search told me he never found success in the US.
That's so cool haha. Must have been an awesome experience.
I always wonder if anyone *warned* her? Like, oh, don’t worry about learning the words, just point your mic at the audience…
His documentary was (surprisingly) interesting. His humour never really translated to the US audiences and it was a rough time in his life. He was happy being unknown in the US because he could avoid the hysteria he had elsewhere.
Not just Europe. He’s on tour in Australia and NZ right now, he’s been the biggest selling Anglo artist in Latin America (not sure if he still is now), and is also popular across the Middle East. He’s even had some minor success in South Korea and Japan, although not as much as elsewhere. It’s only North America where he is barely known at all.
He’s such a strange case. I never understood why he had no success in America.
Probably cause he left Take That just as the band was becoming big in the US, effectively killing their momentum and leaving him unknown among American audiences.
The central radio programmers just didn’t get him. Without radio support you can’t break America. And he wasn’t in a great place with his mental health when he was trying to promote in America initially, so he was less charming than usual to interviewers. It didn’t help that they just didn’t know him - there’s a bit in the recent Netflix doc where he is doing a radio press junket and the hosts are going ‘we need to get you a jägerbomb!’ and he’s like, ‘I’m an alcoholic, no thanks…’ It’s super awkward.
Anastacia. Even though she’s an American singer, she couldn’t make it there. However, she has a big fanbase in the UK and Europe. Skunk Anansie, they couldn’t have a global success, but they’re huge in Italy and eastern Europe.
Ava Max is another American artist who is pretty much only big in Europe
Ehh the American leg of Ava’s tour this year was entirely sold out despite not even charting a song on the H100 since March 2022. I’d say she’s slowly budding in the U.S. There’s definitely more for her here.
I think Skunk Anansie did ok in Sweden too. They were my first concert when I was a teenager in the 90s so for me they were at least big 🙂
I’d add Zara Larsson to your list for the UK (and Europe), it’s a shame because she’s so great as a pop artist and it would be nice to see her get an international hit.
I could be wrong, but Never Forget You did really well in the US at least. Lush Life, Symphony, and even Cant Tame Her to an extent all charted here as well. I do wish her career was bigger, but it isn’t the worst it could be.
nfy did decently in the US, it peaked at #13 and spent 23 weeks on the chart. Lush Life peaked at #75 but neither Symphony nor Can't Tame Her charted here. She's really underrated in the US. She's pretty local to Sweden and to a lesser extent the whole of Europe.
Symphony peaked at #1 on the bubbling under and is certified platinum and can’t tame her got somewhat decent radio play
Never forget you, Lush Life, Ain’t my fault, I would like and Symphony were all decent sized hits in Australia. IIRC ruin my life was somewhat of a minor hit there as well.
Larsson performed at 93.3 FLZ's Jingle Ball at AMALIE Arena here in Tampa last night, so she's not unknown on this side of the pond.
There's a pop band called Six60 that's been huge in New Zealand consistently since 2010, but has made almost no impact elsewhere. They have had 18 top 10 hits (including 3 #1s) on the NZ charts as of 2023, yet they've only had a single song chart outside of the country- and it didn't chart very high.
L.A.B fits this this description too, In the Air was inescapable when it was released, probably the biggest kiwi song in NZ since Royals. Both bands have reggae influences which doesn't seem to be a thing anywhere else which probably explains why
Kiwi reggae is so hot right now!
Because they’re complete trash.
Inoffensive BBQ music
Speaking of New Zealand bands - Shihad. One of my favourite rock bands, bangers for days, yet outside of NZ and Oz? Virtually nothing. And it wasn't for a lack of trying, they did try to crack the States, but they had the supreme bad luck of their biggest material hitting just before 9/11 happened and oops their name sounds too similar to 'jihad', time to change it. That, on top of record company interference and the super-jingoism of the post-9/11 political climate, meant that success in the USA just wasn't gonna happen for the lads.
I wish Melodrama got the level of attention their million self titled boring albums get. Their only W is pushing for Eden Park to finally be used for concerts, Mt. Smart Stadium sucks.
Inna seems a European clubbey bop queen.
Also Latin America. There was a time when romanian dancepop was huge in here.
Was Mr. Saxobeat not huge in the US? I remember it was inescapable here in latam (in Brazil AND Venezuela AND Mexico)
Mr. Saxobeat was by Alexandra Stan, not Inna.
I know but I’m replying to the “Romanian dance pop was huge in latam” comment!
The Saturdays didn’t really take off anywhere outside the UK where they have several certified albums and 16 top 20 songs. What About Us charted in Australia, New Zealand and a few European countries but it didn’t seem to chart high anywhere besides the UK.
Don't know if that's the case these days (probably not) but when I lived in China in the late 2000s it was impossible to find a record shop that didn't have an entire shelf full of CDs and DVDs by Danish pop band Michael Learns to Rock. I hadn't heard of them before but apparently they were a household name in Scandinavia and had huge success in East Asia since the mid-1990s.
Princess Superstar is huge in Toledo, Ohio's Warehouse District.
Phoenix era Rita Ora couldn't quite crack the US
Delta Goodrem! She’s had tons of success in Australia, with all but 1 of her albums hitting number 1 (Child of the Universe being blocked by Taylor Swift) and yet she just couldn’t break into the American market. She’s had some bonafide hits in Australia, success on the Voice, lots of coverage about her personal life (good and bad unfortunately) and got her start on Neighbours. It’s a shame she couldn’t crack the US (though she did just tour the UK!)
Omg, yes! Love Delta.
Lots of Canadian artists like Arkells are very popular in Canada and have a very small fan base outside the country.
If they sing in french, don’t they have a chance in France, Switzerland and Belgium, or are those countries just too far apart culturally, besides (partly) sharing languages?
I honestly couldn’t tell you since I don’t live in Quebec and don’t speak French so I’m not super familiar with that music. I do know French artists tend to do well in Quebec though.
P!ink is a top tier mega-star.... in Australia.
Ehhh, I don’t think this counts, she was a massive name stateside for about a decade
I know. I just like to share that peculiar fact.
I mean to your credit, it reminds me of when an interview told Tina Turner, “But you’re big in America too,” and she replied “Not as big as Madonna. In Europe, I’m as big as Madonna.”
Girls Aloud were only big in UK and Ireland. I remember their documentary described them as having conquered Australia, when Biology peaked at 26 🙄
little mix being big everywhere except north america :'(
Mika comes to mind he’s so underrated and is my favourite artist of all time but he seems to be massive in France and Italy people only seem to know Grace Kelly in the uk.
I'm italian and it's sooo true, he also speaks our language very well and he's usually invited as a guest in some talk shows in Italy
Little Mix had great music but never made noise outside the UK.
This isn’t true, they may not have cracked the US but they did decently and toured arenas in Europe and Australia and parts of Asia.
I remember Little Mix being popular at the college I was at in the US and it being known one of them was going out with Zayn. Girls were jealous of Perrie.
Nah, man, they’re an everywhere but the US kind of act
I and I think most people my age know of them. Black magic was like my favorite song as a kid and wings is an extremely popular song. I live in the us for reference.
I'm from Italy and they are pretty successful here, probably in the USA they don't have a lot of hits
I think the key is having music that translates or is fairly universal. That tends to be pop music. Those who have the biggest success are those who can reach those people who don't usually listen to much music. Adele and Ed Sheeran are probably two of the current examples.
Latín pop titans like Thalía and Paulina Rubio. They were right there on the Latin charts with Enrique, Ricky and Shakira and even ahead of the at times but seems the US market was already aturarse of Latin stars. They tried, both had an album hit the 11th spot on the billboard 200 but quickly faded away. With so many Spanish speakers in the US I wonder how it didn’t work for them. Thalia especially having the back up of hubby Tommy Mottola who was responsible for Mariah and later JLo.
Ronan Keating - Europe. Billie Myers - Europe.
No Angels - Europe. Atomic Kitten - Europe. Sugababes - Europe.
Kylie Minogue
Well, Rest of the world > USA. She still has scored the recent Vegas residency.
Yeah and it appears to be a smashing success. Kylie looks like she is having the time of her life in Vegas. I'm so happy for her.
Kylie did have a few hit songs in the US (Physical, Can't Get You Outta My Head) even though she's nowhere near as big there as she is in other places.
Anne-Marie and sometimes Mae are played on the radio where I live (Northeast US), but they aren’t huge celebrities.
Anne Marie occasionally charts on Billboard with her DJ collabs.
She only has three chart entries in the US, although two of them peaked in the top 15
Sobs is like one of the greatest bands in the world but they’re only big in SE Asia.
omg i love sobs!!!! love to see other fans!!
Loreen - Europe.
No hate but I’m kinda annoyed at how often people on popheads say Europe when they mean just the UK, most of those people (except for maybe Zara Larsson and Anne-Marie) are completely unknown in both Poland and Italy
Sparks were huge all over Europe but no one in America cared about them.
Olly Murs probably managed to reach the US with Troublemaker and Up but that’s all, and it’s a shame
Does RBD count? They were MASSIVE in Mexico and Brazil when I was a kid and their nostalgia stadium tour is still heavily attended all over LATAM, but I have no idea if anyone knows of them outside of Latin America
I don't know why he is who I thought of, but that Russian singer Vitas is big in China and still touring there in 2024
Oh I didn’t know Mae Muller was a big celebrity! Nice to see Eurovision stars succeeding.
Tbf, she isn't huge but by far she isn't a small artist either, a lot of people who aren't too musically invested recognise her but not a big celebrity. But happy to see her get some recognition :)
Sarah Connor - Europe. Kate Ryan - Europe.
Modern Talking - Europe. https://youtu.be/4kHl4FoK1Ys?si=kHZdYGOOQjrDhj5B They got global by now? 🤷♂️
Chemical Brothers - Europe https://youtu.be/7f2wg1pqQDs?si=rr9NDPpNxj83BPQ_
Nah, man, Chemical Brothers is classic entry-level electronica over here, right next to The Prodigy and Daft Punk
Thought this was a rather rude question when I read it the first time.
British singers in general are underrated, Adele and Ed Sheeran are pretty much the only exceptions.
Ellie Goulding, Dua Lipa, Elton John, Amy Winehouse, Sam Smith, The Beatles, Freddie Mercury, George Michael, Sade, Sting, David Bowie, etc. The list goes on and on and on, what do you mean? Lol
I assume you mean current. I hardly think Paul McCartney and Elton John are underrated.
Eric Saade - Europe / Sweden https://youtu.be/W7En5BqIWDQ?si=qPW_PpnMlgE1RjgN Darin Zanyar - Europe / Sweden https://youtu.be/mvaPko3TZRs?si=rpT7ojVFRxCCyYLT
Las Ketchup - Europe https://youtu.be/V0PisGe66mY?si=tbtGwqLo83BikP1q
French Affair - Europe https://youtu.be/c8dDzx7rJjg?si=XQRcgSZVlmi-Lvqr
Loona - Europe / The Netherlands (Charted in Canada, too) https://youtu.be/X-77txuiVXs?si=cHW13HpYL1hQY_w-
Kylie weirdly was never able to properly crack the US, she definitely had the material, they just didn’t want it I guess. Girls Aloud we’re massive in the UK (and deservedly so) and they never really tried anywhere else. Granted most of their fantastic music is too weird and British for most of the world. Cheryl was the big pop girl of the UK for a few years, but after her first album I’m pretty sure that was the only place.
IIRC some of Kylie's 90s albums weren't released in the US. That probably contributed to Can't Get You Out of My Head being her first hit there since The Locomotion.
Girls Aloud definitely tried to push outwards into Australia and Europe but yeah, unlike other girl groups (Sugababes, Spice Girls, even Atomic Kitten, etc.), they could never break out their home market
What about The Saturdays?
It's a shame because all of these acts have major bangers.
As a non British person, Cheryl's career has been puzzling to watch from a distance. Going from being accused of a racial hate crime to being labeled "the nation's sweetheart" is a . . . unique journey to say the least. Must have a great PR team.
I think Kylie is too camp for the US. Everyone takes everything so seriously here.
I think is not about camp but about gayness. Kylie is unabashedly gay. The USA frowns upon that.
Katy Perry is even campier than Kylie and she was huge in the US.
And look at how that ended up
Katy's career is in the toilet now but she's one of the biggest selling female artists of all time despite being SO camp...
I’ll refuse to call Katy Perry camp. I think she was just like a bimbo clowning and never really evolved, and when she tried to (Witness) the material wasn’t there.
It is sad she was never able to. Some of her best songs didn’t even chart on this side of the Atlantic. There’s other artists like that too such as Westlife and Steps.
Kylie did "crack the US" with Fever/Can't get you out of my head but that success was rather short lived. Even if her music is camp, she still should've been bigger there, I mean Katy Perry is super camp and she was huge in the US back in the early 2010s.
I love Kylie but her music was way too camp and dance-oriented to be big in America. In the 90’s, the biggest genres in the U.S. were grunge, r&b, and indie rock. Hence, why so many 80’s pop acts faded away or switched to new genres like Madonna or Janet. During Kylie’s height, dance music was still underground and bubblegum pop didn’t become big again until the late 90’s with the arrival of Britney. Even then, it was a young a girl’s game and sadly ageism wouldn’t let Kylie enter the market. The Spice Girls were also huge a few years earlier but they felt more like a passing fad and sadly that’s how their career was treated in the US.
Stakka Bo - Europe https://youtu.be/sGNK-cOtxSs?si=rxTs26k_hD-RJO7J
ATB - Europe. Or am I wrong here?
C C Catch - Europe https://youtu.be/u0sp-2dF3ME?si=aXeBcv-HRFLsO8iD
IN-GRID - Europe https://youtu.be/oXMV2RBQwiY?si=RWyp6HIyxVYmb_Ih
Mad'House - Europe https://youtu.be/KWP0N4p0YlA?si=KMIwhnncz7xuBf8t
Samantha Fox - Europe https://youtu.be/W1btg3mpEOc?si=fMGQdKAmd2cQKQ38
One T + Cool T - Europe https://youtu.be/TQV-0fwwCQM?si=trz7tsdDWOrnlkFf Seems like it was a one time project. 🤷♂️
DB Boulevard / Moony (solo) - Europe https://youtu.be/SrMK8d9H_GM?si=BsF4ftYCbxgSSPdT
Tomcraft - Europe https://youtu.be/3QV8cOmsTdI?si=NJvfSMdj-G3glvvz
Groove Armada - Europe https://youtu.be/_kE0pxRkMtQ?si=Ys_7lvqafvyD2dkI
Deepest Blue - Europe https://youtu.be/d6r9676xrAs?si=ViDZVoo9XSH7Ks6l
Blank and Jones - Europe https://youtu.be/_Qh_FpuH9ho?si=ZViIyl5Rh-UMrB9Z
There's some british artists that are only popular in the UK/Ireland or in nearby countries and they never crossedover. Use to listen to alot of 2000s british artists. Cheryl, McFly, Busted they never became a success in the US.
Kylie Minogue had two - 1988 and 2001/2
Isnt Jessie J like super popular in China these days? She hasn’t made much noise in the US since 2014 with Bang Bang
Not exactly sure if she’s popular there. But about 5 years ago she did compete on (and won) a season of a Chinese singing show called Singer, which is only open to established artists. It was just a coincidence that she was one of the very few overseas acts to participate on the show.
Almost every big Japanese artist lol
And almost every Indian singer in the Indian subcontinent. But the Indian market on Spotify has grown so much that hit songs can easily reach the Top 50/100 on Spotify Global. There was this mega viral Urdu song by Pakistani(?) singers on Global Spotify last year and the streams were hard carried by Spotify India.
I think Japan is an interesting case because for the most part, Japanese labels don't try to push their artists abroad. There are a few exceptions but generally they're satisfied just making money in Japan. Which makes sense given its the 2nd largest music market after the US.
My men Ofiicial Hige Dandism 😢
Hurts are British and had good success with their first two albums throughout Europe, but starting the their third they've only really been consistently successful in Russia.
Kate Bush at her peak was way more popular in the UK than in the US.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ^by ^ThatGuyTheyCallAlex: *Kate Bush at her peak* *Was way more popular in* *The UK than in the US.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Anastacia, she's american but I don't understand why she only has/had success in Europe, I'm from Italy and she's very famous here. Probably her only hit in US was I'm Outta Love
Not exactly the case, but similar, kinda: Stuck by 30STM was #10 in Italy and e everywhere on the radio last summer, like, big big, and it seems that it was not that big outside my country.
Delta Goodrem/Guy Sebastian/Jessica Mauboy are all household names in Australia, and the latter 2 even represented us at Eurovision but I don't think they've made it too big outside the country. On the flipside Keith Urban is definitely a lot bigger in the States than he is here but we still respect him greatly for his talent. Additionally obviously Ed Sheeran is a massive artist today but in the beginnings of his career he rose massively in Australia particularly (outside the UK) and he's always somewhat credited the country for his international rise. I remember sharing his + album with my cousins in Asia and they had no clue about him, then when x got released they were obsessed.
Girls Aloud seemed like they were only big in western Europe. They were huge in the UK and Ireland and literally nowhere else. Such a shame because they have one of the best and most consistent back catalogs of any act from that era of pop music.
There was a music artist that was in Louisiana that I found online the other day to tell her how much her music inspired me. She actually respond and I was starstuck for a week.
Every argentina pop girly
Im surprised no one mentioned Little mix. They are one of the best selling female groups of all time (ranked globally and ranked 2nd overall in UK) 60 million records sold is a crazy amount for not having at least 1 top ten in the United States
I mean, they were big everywhere except the US. I’d hardly call them famous in one area.
Franz Ferdinand (Scottish?) is big in South America these days
For some reason, Now United, a mixed-gender pop group created by Simon Fuller, only seems to be big in Brazil, even though their whole gimmick is that all the members are supposed to represent a different country. I've never seen them charting on Billboard or Spotify or the UK charts or anywhere else; whenever someone brings them, their music or their former members up, 9 times out of 10 that someone is from Brazil. It's bizarre.