Every Non-English Song That Reached the Hot 100 Top 10 – Billboard

Non-English-language music has a long history on Billboard’s charts.

While, naturally, the U.S.-centered Billboard Hot 100 chart mostly contains songs recorded in English, occasionally an international hit will become an inescapable global sensation, dominating the conversation, and streaming and radio airwaves—think Los Del Rio’s 1996 14-week No. 1 hit “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)” (recorded in Spanish) or PSY’s viral “Gangham Style” in 2012 (Korean).

In total, 34 songs recorded either entirely or mostly in a non-English language have reached the top 10 of the Hot 100 in the chart’s 65-year history (through the chart dated Aug. 19, 2023). The first was Domenico Modugno’s Italian smash “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)” in the chart’s inaugural year, 1958. The song spent five total weeks at No. 1, before winning both record of the year and song of the year at the first annual Grammy Awards in 1959.

Of the 34 non-English-language top 10 hits, 18 are in Spanish, the most of any language. Korean is the second-most (with eight), followed by German (three), French and Italian (two each) and Japanese (one).

Bad Bunny has earned the most non-English-language Hot 100 top 10s, with nine total (he’s earned two additional top 10s in his career, “I Like It” with Cardi B and J Balvin and “K-POP” with Travis Scott and The Weeknd, but those are primarily in English). Four of those tracks are from his 2022 album Un Verano Sin Ti, which spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the longest-leading non-English-language album in history. BTS has the second-most non-English Hot 100 top 10s, with five, followed by PSY (two).

Ten of the 34 songs have reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, including Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” (featuring Justin Bieber), which spent a then-record-tying 16 weeks at No. 1 in 2017. The most recent No. 1 is Jimin’s “Like Crazy,” which is primarily in Korean, but also contains English, in April 2023.

Meanwhile, 22 of the 34 top 10s have reached the tier since 2012, following a 16-year break between “Macarena” and “Gangnam Style.” The influx coincides with music’s increased globalization, highlighted by hits from Bad Bunny and BTS, among others.

As of the Aug. 19-dated charts, five such songs have reached the Hot 100’s top 10 in 2023 alone so far, the most ever in a calendar year. 2022 previously had the most, with four, after three reached the region in both 2019 and 2020.

2023 has been particularly historic specifically for regional Mexican music. After Gera MX and Christian Nodal’s “Botella Tras Botella” became the first song in the genre to debut on the Hot 100 in 2021, the genre achieved its first top 10 earlier this year with Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola.” It later became the first top five hit, too, peaking at No. 4.

Further, Shakira became the first solo woman in history to score Spanish-language Hot 100 top 10, thanks to her collaboration with Bizarrap in January, “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.”

In chronological order of their peak dates, here are all 34 non-English-language songs to reach the Hot 100’s top 10 (with thanks to Paul Haney at Joel Whitburn’s Record Research for research assistance). Note that the list does not include songs with relatively minimal portions in other languages, such as Enrique Iglesias’ “Bailamos” or Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin’s “I Like It.”