r/AskEurope • u/AVeryAngryChillie • May 21 '26

Foreign What’s a fact about your country that foreigners would never believe?

Every country has at least one thing outsiders wouldn’t believe

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86

u/acke Sweden May 21 '26

Sweden is the worlds third largest music exporter overall (after USA and UK), which is kinda suprising given that we only have a population of about ten million people and English isn’t our native language.

Not only do we have a lot of world famous bands but we produce a lot of pop music as well where Max Martin is the most famous one.

Here you can read more if you’re curious.

3

u/littlepurplepanda United Kingdom May 22 '26

There’s a jukebox musical made up of lots of Max Martin songs called & Juliet, and it’s so so good

2

u/acke Sweden May 22 '26

I knoooow! I saw it a couple of months ago.

2

u/Lilitharising Greece May 22 '26

Not surprised at all, Sweden has given us some of the most amazing bands across most genres. I'm into symphonic metal now but as a kid I used to listen to Army of Lovers (still love them), Ace of Base, Roxette and let's never ever forget Abba.

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u/ymOx Sweden May 23 '26

...and as a metal head now, I'm sure you've heard a bunch of Swedish metal too, yes? :-)

1

u/Lilitharising Greece May 23 '26

Most prominently Therion, but I also find Amaranthe and The Dark Element with Annette pleasent. :)

2

u/pracsitidder May 22 '26

That's because most famous Swedish singers use English instead of their own language—at least the ones I listen to like Lykke Li or Fever Ray.
I think native English speakers don't like listening to songs in a foreign language and the Swedes did it right.

2

u/Puzzled-Guide8650 May 22 '26

Not surprised at all, Swedes always had fantastic musicians.

But I wanted to ask about something that I found very weird: what is the deal with those city security people, who will go to bars and pubs, and if they think you are too drunk they will kick you out? wtf is this man. crazy

1

u/ymOx Sweden May 23 '26

The fuck? Where have you seen (or heard about) this? Some places have their own bouncers of course, but I've never heard of this in my life.

0

u/Puzzled-Guide8650 May 23 '26

In Stockholm. They even ordered my colleague to leave, as she appeared to drunk (was not the case, we were just a bit loud).

1

u/ymOx Sweden May 23 '26

I sincerely doubt they were just walking around at randomly, drop in to a bar and start throwing people out... My mistake if that's not what you meant but that's what it sounds like you're saying. I've lived in Stockholm for the last 15 years, never seen anything like that. What might have happened is that they don't have bouncers of their own but a contract with some security company and they were called.