The most successful album of 2024 in Germany so far comes from superstar Taylor Swift. In the half-year singles charts, however, a young man is at the top.
Tousled hair with a mustache and a catchy tune: The American singer and songwriter Benson Boone (22) has landed the hit of 2024 so far in the Official German Charts. His rocky song “Beautiful Things” comes in first place in the half-year evaluation (i.e. the first 26 weeks), as GfK Entertainment reports. In the albums category – far less surprisingly – Taylor Swift makes it to first place in the half-year charts with her pop album “The Tortured Poets Department”.
The American singer Swift (34) is coming to Germany this month as part of her record-breaking tour “The Eras Tour”. The superstar will be performing in Gelsenkirchen (17, 18 and 19 July), Hamburg (23 and 24 July) and Munich (27 and 28 July).
Last year, “Komet” by Udo Lindenberg & Apache 207 was the most successful single of the first half of the year and later also the hit of the year.
In terms of albums, the English synth-rock band Depeche Mode was at the top with “Memento Mori” in the first half of the year and was then overtaken in the annual charts by the work “Hackney Diamonds” by the old rockers The Rolling Stones, which was only released in October.
Benson Boone (born 2002) looks exactly like many people’s stereotypes of a young man from Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2010): slim, tousled hair, earrings, rosy cheeks, moustache.
According to American media, he grew up as the only boy in a Mormon family in Monroe (Washington State) with four sisters. However, he hardly ever says anything about his family’s religion.
His music comes across as handmade electric guitar rock, his “Beautiful Things” has proven to have the potential to be a global Tiktok hit in recent months, especially because of this part where the previously harmlessly tinkling song takes off into a harsh crescendo: “Don’t… take… these beautiful things that I’ve got”. Boone’s voice reminds some of Freddie Mercury’s electrifying singing.
Boone’s debut album did not take off in Germany as well as his hit “Beautiful Things”: The album “Fireworks & Rollerblades”, released in April, only reached number 20 as its highest position in the album charts.
“Don’t take away these beautiful things that I have…”
The lyrics of “Beautiful Things” read like a dialogue with the Almighty (“I thank God every day for the girl he sent me; but I know the things he gives me he can also take away (…) Please stay. I want you, I need you, oh God. Don’t take away these beautiful things that I have…”).
Boone first discovered his singing talent when he was in high school. Before he became a star with a global hit, he tried his luck at “American Idol” (the US version of the British casting show “Pop Idol”, which RTL has adapted here as “Deutschland sucht den Superstar”) as an 18-year-old.
However, he withdrew after he had advanced to the top 24. He later said that he did not want to be labelled a casting show star.
Lovesickness album by pop queen Swift
Taylor Swift, who has gone from superstar to the biggest pop star in the world in the last year and a half, has also made it to the top without any casting nonsense. The 34-year-old has now reached such a level of fame that almost every step she takes in public is newsworthy worldwide. She also refers to this in her album.
“The Tortured Poets Department” is a concept album that is dedicated to different phases of a breakup and is full of allusions. The main theme of the work is the well-known heartbreak. The music – partly calm, keyboard-heavy retro pop, partly more in the direction of indie folk – only seems like background music for Swift stories.
Fans are sure that the singer’s eleventh studio album has numerous references to Swift’s life and her ex-partners, including actor Joe Alwyn and presumably musician Matty Healy.
In terms of albums, “Hit Me Hard And Soft” by Billie Eilish comes in second place. “The Böhsen Onkelz – still the benchmark in the quarterly evaluation – are now celebrating “40 Years of Onkelz – Live at the Waldstadion” in third place,” reports GfK Entertainment.
They are ahead of Ayliva (“Schwarzes Herz”) and Kontra K (“Die Hoffnung klaut mir niemand”). In sixth and seventh place are other hip-hop acts in the top 10: Luciano (“Seductive”) and KIZ (“Görlitzer Park”).
In the half-year single charts, electronic songs are first and foremost behind Benson Boone: namely Bennett (“Vois sur ton chemin (Techno Mix)”), Artemas (“I Like The Way You Kiss Me”), Cyril (“Stumblin’ In”) and Cassö, Raye & D-Block Europe (“Prada”).
Soho Bani and Grönemeyer have the biggest German hit so far
The most successful German-language song, in sixth place, is the song “Zeit, dass sich was dreht” by Soho Bani, Herbert Grönemeyer & Ericson. It is a remix of Herbert Grönemeyer’s 2006 World Cup anthem by rapper Soho Bani. The song has been at number one for the third week in early July – during the European Football Championship in Germany.
Incidentally, “Vois sur ton chemin” at number two in the half-year singles charts is a techno mix of a choir song from the French musical film “The Children of Monsieur Mathieu”, which was released in 2004.
The new version went viral on Tiktok in the summer of 2023 and also became Koblenz-based DJ Bennett’s first number one hit in January.
Bennett (“Vois sur ton chemin (Techno Mix)”) Artemas (“I like the way you kiss me”) Taylor Swift (“Fortnight”) – feat. Post Malone Benson Boone (“Beautiful Things”) “Beautiful Things” in the Official German Charts
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
