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Another addition to the eagerly awaited year-end music trend research has emerged. The research sheds light on Turkey’s foreign music listening habits and shows that, in Turkey, English and Korean songs are the most listened to after Turkish. 

TURKEY - While popular music streaming platforms release their annual music listening trend lists at the end of each year, this time, a research study has been conducted on Turkey’s foreign language music listening habits. Reply, an online language learning platform that brings together over 32,000 educators for more than 50 languages, including online English courses, online German courses, and online French courses, sheds light on Turkey’s foreign music listening trends. The “Research on Foreign Music Listening Habits in Turkey”, prepared by Preply, which also offers online English practice, revealed that English songs are the most listened to in Turkey after Turkish. 

9 out of 10 foreign songs are in English

The research, created by examining foreign-language songs that are not among the most listened to Turkish songs, compiled from open sources by Preply, showed that out of the 10 foreign songs preferred by Turkish listeners, 9 are in English. Mustafa Ali Sivişoğlu, the Regional Manager for Europe at Preply, shared his insights on the research, stating, “While end-of-year music summary content released by platforms sheds light on popular songs in Turkey, it does not provide comprehensive insights into foreign-language songs. Our research at Preply shows that 92% of the most listened to foreign songs are in English, despite the dominance of English. It is not surprising that Korea quickly takes the second spot, given the recent trend of popular Korean dramas and the K-pop movement, which has become a trend worldwide. Through inflectional K-pop groups like BTS, Korean has become a popular language. At Preply, we continue to understand our target audience based on their daily habits and offer online solutions such as Korean, English, and German courses. Users who join Preply can plan personalized foreign language lessons by selecting online language teachers to meet their needs.”

Social media trends also bring popularity to languages

Mustafa Ali Sivişoğlu mentioned that among the nearly 2,000 foreign songs examined in the research, languages like Spanish, French, Hindi, Albanian, Arabic, and Dutch also made it to the list. He stated, “Especially for foreign languages that receive a smaller share of the pie and have a smaller reach, our interference is that the popularity might be driven by trends on short video platforms where dances to different songs occasionally become popular. The fact that songs in languages in Albanian and Hindi attract interest from all around the world contributes to them being among the most listened to on other platforms as well. We see that Turkey’s most listened-to forgings songs are produced in 13 languages, indicating that Turkish listeners are willing to tune into universal notes even if they don’t understand the lyrics.”

The most listened-to foreign singers in Turkey have been announced 

Mustafa Ali Sivişoğlu also mentioned that they identified the most popular foreign artists in Turkey to validate the language data and enrich the research. He said, “In the list of the most popular foreign songs, we ranked the artists with the most songs. Among the artists who made it to these lists with more than 15 songs, The Weeknd emerged as the winner with 55 songs. The Weeknd, who also holds the record with over 4 billion streams on popular music platforms, was followed by Ariana Grande. In third place, we had a result that didn’t surprise us: South Korean group BTS became Turkey's third most popular foreign artist with 47 songs. Looking at global data, we can say that Turkish listeners closely follow global trends with their interest in artists like The Weeknd and Ariana Grande.”

“Listening to music contributes to learning a foreign language”

Mustafa  Ali Sivişoğlu, Preppy’s Regional Manager of Europe, expressed their interest in any subject that involves language and culture. He concluded his remarks with the following statement, “In one part of our research, we also presented scientific findings on how listening to music in a foreign language contributes to the language learning process. Listening to music in a foreign language helps strengthen memory, introduce correct pronunciations, and improve listening skills with repetitive melodies, all of which contribute to language learning. At Preply, we offer our users a platform to achieve their language learning goals by practicing with private teachers in 50 languages, including English, Spanish, German, Italian, Korean, and Russian. At Preply, we bring together native-speaking teachers worldwide with those who want to learn a language at every level and age. We are digitizing the language learning process with our renewed brand identity and enhanced platform.