A Musical Journey Around the World: 20 Songs with City Names

Choosing a city name as the title of your song is like choosing a person's name. If your name is Penelope, you're likely to have a special fondness for Serrat's song, and all the Penelopes in the world will be fans of it. With a city, the impact is even greater. Whenever you hear the New York, New York popularized by Sinatra, you'll want to visit the city of skyscrapers. Likewise, New Yorkers will feel proud every time it plays. So, we propose a list of 20 songs named after cities to remind you of places you've visited or inspire you to discover them. Hit play!

We had a tough time deciding between the Amsterdam by the brilliant Belgian or the Bruxelles, but we opted for the former for several reasons. First, because its crescendo is one of the best contributions to music history. Second, because it was almost not dedicated to Amsterdam, but to Antwerp, which didn't fit the rhyme. Third, because there may not be as many sailors in the port of Amsterdam anymore, but we like to imagine another time when we listen to it.

The winner of the 1974 Eurovision Festival was also voted the best song in the history of the European musical contest in 2005. Its title, Waterloo, refers to the famous battle that took place in 1815 around this Belgian city and led to Napoleon's downfall. Its protagonist surrenders, like Bonaparte, but this time it's due to love.

"In Buenos Aires, everything flies / Joy, anarchy / Kindness, desperation," sings Argentine Fito Páez in this critical song about the Argentine capital. It was included in the album Enemigos íntimos, recorded with Sabina in 1998, after which they ended up, quite literally, as intimate enemies. "In the song 'Buenos Aires,' I talk about the Falcons, vehicles used by the military dictatorship; later, they were sold to individuals and you can still find them on the streets of this city, sending chills down your spine," Fito explained to El País.

The British band led by Matt Bellamy made a version of this song by Mega City Four and included it as a B-side on their album The Resistance. Mega City Four admitted that they never visited Prague, but they used the city to talk about being far away. Muse wanted to pay tribute to Wiz, the singer and leader of Mega City Four, who passed away in 2006.

And after Muse's guitar, it's time to relax with the Latin pop of Ricky Martin. In his song, he describes Saint-Tropez as a place where anything can happen. For Ricky, this spot on the French Riviera makes him dance. What about you?

This hit by Editors was written in Birmingham, their hometown, but bears the name of the German city of Munich. It was included in their debut album, The Back Room, released in 2005. Some see in its lyrics a reference to Nazism, especially because it depicts how easy it is for humans to break and fall into the dark side.

The Eastern music of the song immediately transports us to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. It was included in their 1985 album The Head On The Door. According to Robert Smith, roughly half of the song relates to a dream his wife, Mary, had about a dead person in a swimming pool. The other half relates to a dream he had where he was eating someone. Very The Cure.

Controversial as few, this song by Blur refers to a trip that Damon Albarn took to the North Korean capital in 2013. Upon returning, he dedicated a song to the impressions the city of Pyongyang left on him, some complex.

Cádiz smells of salt by dawn. This is assured by Niña Pastori and Alejandro Sanz in this hit composed by the latter and sung by the former, included in Sanz's Grandes éxitos 91_04 in 2004. "It's a song that belongs to everyone, to those of us from Cádiz and those who are not. It is an anthem to the beauty represented by a city like Cádiz and to our peculiar way of living," explains Sanz. That's good enough for us.

We swap Cádiz for Baltimore (quite a leap). In 2015, Prince dedicated a song to the city featured in The Wire, and the song relates closely to the series, as it discusses African Americans killed by police in the controversial city of Maryland. The recent death of George Floyd makes this song by Prince particularly relevant.

The young artist says the sky is bluer in Malibu. A song dedicated to the city of Malibu that contains clear references to her then-boyfriend Liam Hemsworth with whom she was living in the city. Critics pointed to Malibu as indicative of Cyrus's transition into a softer artist, moving away from a previously controversial image.

New Jersey included it in his album Blaze of Glory. In it, the city of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, is mentioned, where a man faces his final judgment. Redemption is one of the themes discussed.

Ryan Ross and Spencer Smith created Panic! at the Disco in Las Vegas in 2004, making it expected for them to have a song dedicated to the gambling mecca of the west coast of the United States. In fact, the album featuring 'Vegas Lights,' Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!, released in 2013, is almost entirely a tribute to Las Vegas. "I wanted 'Vegas Lights' to be an anthem for Las Vegas as I see it when I go to the clubs. That rare energy when everyone is having a good time and nothing matters. Dance like nobody's watching," explains singer Brendon Urie. So there you have it, let's dance!

A love letter to New York City, the place where he was born and raised until he was 11. In it, he mentions several locations like Madison Square Garden, where he saw the Jackson Five perform for the first time, the Carlyle café, which he used to visit with his mother to listen to musicians, and also the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art), where he spent long hours due to its proximity to his home.

So why did Ed Sheeran dedicate a song to Barcelona in 2017? Because it seems he was looking for, as he himself says in the song, a place where the sun always shines and you can dance until dawn, and the Catalan City came to mind. The use of these stereotypes led many to criticize the song, but the Brit has made it clear that he loves the city above all.

The brilliant Lou Reed not only dedicated a song to the German capital but an entire album as well. It was in 1973, and it was a conceptual record that told the story of a couple's addiction to drugs. But the song we're talking about here is the one Lou included in his 1972 debut album. At that time, Reed had not yet visited Berlin, but it served him well to draw a parallel between the wall that divided the city and a couple that was breaking apart. Lou Reed would not step foot in Berlin until his friend David Bowie moved there in 1976.

Madrid "My favorite city in the world," says the song. A tune that this group dedicates to the city that saw them born.

In 2014, Morrissey included this song in his album World Peace is None of Your Business. With it, he takes us to the streets of Istanbul and recreates the musical tone of the Turkish city thanks to a Cigar Box guitar, a Lap Steel guitar, and a gong for percussion. Regarding the lyrics, it narrates the story of searching for a person in the middle of a prostitution area in Istanbul.

They say that for those who can't get to Las Vegas, there's Atlantic City. Bruce Springsteen dedicated a song to the gambling city on the east coast of the United States in 1982, within his album Nebraska. In it, he talks about gambling, the mob... Another gem from the Boss.

The city in New Mexico not only served as a backdrop for the TV series Breaking Bad and its spin-off, Better Call Saul, but it also inspired Neil Young to write a song. In it, he talks about fleeing to a place where no one cares who you are. Is that place Albuquerque? It seems so for Neil and for the protagonists of the two series we mentioned.

What great song will inspire you today?