Here are the most listened to albums and singles in French-speaking Belgium
Angèle, headliner of the CORE Festival 2023. Copyright Belga
French-speaking rap took the lion’s share of the ranking of the best-selling albums of the year in French-speaking Belgium with eight entries in the top 10, according to the Ultratop prize list 2022 of the Belgian recorder association (BRMA) published on Friday. The first place goes nevertheless, and without great surprise, to “Multitude” by Stromaereleased on March 4.
Apart from the maestro’s latest opus, Angèle is the only non-rap artist to have managed to climb into the top 10 places of the top 100 thanks to her album “Nonante-five”, in third position. She is also the only female artist there.
For the rest, the top of the ranking is therefore occupied by French-speaking rap albums, starting with “Civilization” by Orelsan (2) and “Jefe” by Ninho (4). Then comes Lomepal, who has the luxury of occupying 5th place with his latest effort, “Mauvais ordre”, but also 10th place with “Jeannine” released in 2018. He shares this particularity with Damso, whose album ” Ipséité” (2017) occupies 6th place while his last album, “QALF” is in 8th position. Finally, “Deux frères” by PNL (7) and KMT by Gazo (9) complete the top 10.
A more eclectic Top Single
On the side of the most listened to songs, there is more diversity in the musical genres represented. Harry Styles takes first place with As it was, Calm of Rema and ABCDEFU de Gayle completes the podium. Four Belgian artists make it into the top 10; Stromae pour Hell (4th), Angèle and Damso for demons (6th) and Pierre De Maere with One day I will marry an angel (7th).
Very different Flemish tops
On the other side of the linguistic border, we do not listen to the same thing. Multitude de Stromae is the only album present in the two top 10. It comes fifth among the Flemings. Regarding the singles, there are only two correspondences in the 10 favorite songs of the Walloons and the Flemings. They are Harry Style (first on both sides) and Gayle (5th in Flanders). The country therefore seems equally divided by a musical border between North and South.