2013 in continental European music in geographical order.
Scandinavia
Swedish DJ Avicii has a pan-European hit with "Wake Me Up!" with vocals from Aloe Blacc which tops the charts in more than 10 countries. The song is co-written by Incubus' Mike Einziger. His next single, "You Make Me" featuring Salem Al Fakir, is only a local No. 1 but the third one, "Hey Brother", tops the charts in seven European countries. His first album True is a No. 1 in Scandinavia and top5 in the US and most European countries.
Stromae's second album Racine carrée is sensationally successful in francophone countries, No. 1 in Switzerland, 7× platinum in Belgium and even Diamond in France. It also tops the Dutch and Italian charts. Papaoutai, Formidable and Tous les mêmes are all No. 1 singles.
Seventy-four-year-old Schlager music star Heino surprises with "Mit freundlichen Grüßen" ("Kind Regards"), an album full of cover versions of bands like Rammstein, Die Ärzte, Peter Fox and Die Fantastischen Vier. It tops the German album charts for four weeks and earns Gold for being sold over 100,000 times. It nets him an unlikely concert gig with Rammstein at the Heavy Metal Wacken Open Air festival.
Controversial German-speaking Italian/South Tyrolean band Frei.Wild are excluded from the 2013 Echo Awards after several other nominees protest against their perceived right wing political views. Their 8th album Feinde deiner Feinde tops the German charts, though.
Rapper Cro adds more songs to his Platinum album Raop, calling it Raop +5, including his first German No. 1 single "Whatever". He wins Best artist Hip Hop/Urban and Best Newcomer at the Echo Awards.
In July, a collaboration of little-known rapper Shindy and major star Bushido is released, the album title is NWA (Nie wieder arbeiten) and features the scandal single Stress ohne Grund on which Bushido phantasizes about torturing or killing politicians like Claudia Roth and Serkan Tören and bashes homosexuals. The Bundesprüfstelle stops the sale of the album to minors in Germany and the video of the single is pulled from YouTube. Several people press charges against Bushido.[4]
Schlager singer Andrea Berg has her seventh No. 1 album in a row with "Atlantis".
Even though Kurdish-German rapper Haftbefehl's song "Chabos wissen wer der Babo ist" only climbs to No. 30 in the German charts it influences German youth language as the Zazaki word "Babo" ( father, chief ) is elected Langenscheidt's "youth word of the year".[5]
Russian-German DJ Zedd has a global hit with Stay the night ft Hayley Williams which is only No. 15 in Germany but a No. 2 in the UK, gets platinum in Australia and sells more than 1 million copies in the U.S.
Christophe Maé has his fifth straight No. 1 album in France and Belgium with "Je veux du bonheur".
Jazzy singer-songwriter Isabelle Geffroy, better known as Zaz whose 2010 debut Zaz became Platinum in six countries and even Diamond in France releases her second album with Recto verso, it is top 5 in six countries but not as successful as the debut.
French electronic duo Klingande top the charts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy with their single "Jubel"
Marco Mengoni, who won the third Italian series of talent show X Factor in 2009, is crowned the winner of the 63rd Sanremo Music Festival with his entry "L'essenziale", which later holds the first spot of the Italian FIMI Top Digital Downloads chart for eight consecutive weeks, and is launched as the lead single from the number-one album #prontoacorrere.[6][7][8] It also came 7th in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.
After becoming the first rapper to compete in Amici di Maria de Filippi, Moreno wins the talent show, beating runner-up Greta Manuzi, and releases his debut album Stecca, which spends eight weeks at number one on the Italian charts and is certified double platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.[12][13][14]
Eastern Europe/ Balkans
Romanian Alexandra Stan who had a million-seller with Mr. Saxobeat in 2011 is hospitalised in June and files a criminal complaint against her agent and former fiancée Marcel Prodan.[15]