In case you somehow missed your social media feed being flooded with screenshots detailing the listening habits of your friends, family and influencers, the streaming service Spotify has, once again, dropped its list of the year’s most popular tracks - and the results are quite illuminating. 

Beautiful Girl and Layla among Germany’s top songs in 2022

If you’re a Spotify subscriber, you’ll know that each year your Spotify Wrapped rundown can reveal both surprising and unsurprising things about your listening habits - and not always stuff you’d want to share. 

This is certainly true of the list of the most-played songs in Germany this year, which includes a great mix of songs we hate to love, and songs we love to hate - from TikTok sensations to Schlager bones of contention - with the usual smattering of German rap. 

Top of the list is the hit Beautiful Girl by Luciano, a TikTok smash hit that combines samples of Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls with synthesised vocals and fresh lines penned by the rapper from Berlin. German rappers Miksu / Macloud and t-low come second with their song Sehnsucht. 

Third place is a Schlager hit that kicked up a social media storm this summer when several festivals declared it too sexist to be played, sparking a debate about artistic licence and freedom of speech. DJ Robin and Schürze’s song tells the story of a brothel madam called Layla, who is said to be “schöner, jünger, geiler” than all the rest. It could be the controversy that pushed it to number one, or perhaps there’s some guilty fans out there playing it on repeat. 

What did Germany and the world listen to most in 2022?

The top five songs in Germany in 2022 were as follows: 

1. Beautiful Girl - Luciano
2. Sehnsucht - Miksu / Macloud, t-low
3. Layla - DJ Robin, Schürze 
4. Heat Waves - Glass Animals
5. As It Was - Harry Styles

Harry Styles and Glass Animals’ hits both featured on the worldwide most played list. 

The top most played albums in Germany were mostly rap as well, with Ed Sheeren and Harry Styles’ respective pop albums being the only exceptions: 

1. Majestic - Luciano
2. = - Ed Sheeren
3. Zukunft 1 & 2 - RAF Camora
4. Harry’s House - Harry Styles
5. Zukunft - RAF Camora

Worldwide, the most popular artists in 2022 were Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd, and BTS.