Lullabies rumble through Swedish playlists

Lullabies popularity has grown rapidly in Sweden in recent years.

While in 2019 there was only one lullaby among the 20 most listened songs in the annual hit list of the copyright organization Stim, in 2025 there will already be seven, says SVT.

Behind the phenomenon is Josefine Götestam and Adam Portnoffin Humlan Djojj duo. The duo’s lullabies have charmed Swedish children and parents. No less than six of the seven lullabies on the Swedish top 20 list are by Götestam and Portnoff.

Humlan Djojji has over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and their album Fall asleep with Humlan Djojj was Sweden’s most streamed album in both 2023 and 2024.

When Swedish children go to sleep, parents play lullabies on Spotify.

“It seems that we are creating a new type of behavior in Sweden,” Götestam tells SVT.

Bumblebee the biggest hit of the duo named Djojj is lullaby of the animals, i.e. the animals’ lullaby, which has already received nearly 230 million listens on Spotify.

The lyrics of Humlan Djojj’s lullabies often deal with children’s everyday events, from kindergarten routines to falling asleep.

According to Josefine Götestam, the purpose is to make songs whose lyrics make children and parents discuss the events of the day. The magic is in the repetition of songs, which creates a sense of security for the child.

Journalist and writer who has studied the history and development of Swedish parenting Maja Larsson is not surprised by the phenomenon.

He tells SVT that parents have always found ways to get their children to sleep. Playing lullabies from music streaming services is just a continuation of that.

Swedish parents use technology more than before to put their children to sleep. The figures for Sweden from the audio book service Nextory reveal that Swedish parents and children listen to audio books at bedtime by 50 percent since last year.

Finland Humlan Djojj in Swedish has not entered the Spotify charts, and there are no other lullabies at the top of the streaming charts in Finland.

The year 2025 on the list of best-selling books However, among the 20 best-selling books is a Swedish one Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlinin two children’s bedtime story books to help you fall asleep, A rabbit who wanted to fall asleep mixed The tractor that wanted to sleep, The statistics of the Finnish Publishing Association show it.

Both books have been popular, especially on the audio book side. A rabbit who wanted to fall asleep was the most listened to audiobook in 2021–2022.

Addendum 13.5. at 1:57 p.m.: Added information that Rabbit who wanted to fall asleep was the most listened to audio book in Finland in two years.