Top Ten Music Artists Containing the Umlauts Ä, Ö and Ü

Since she is Icelandic, I don't really know if her name is pronounced like in German or if that letter in her name can be compared to German umlauts, but it's an "ö" so I guess it counts.

Björk makes avantgarde so highly enjoyable. She never comes off as pretentious or cold like many in her genre, she's always so alive and it feels very emotive. It helps that she started off fairly poppy (even though it's the kind of pop that people whose taste range beyond pop enjoy most) and then slowly started moving away from these familiar structures. What can be said about Björk is that she really feels the music, it's a deeply sensual experience. She knows that anything can be music if just felt, and she really expanded the boundaries of the music world in an unusually fascinating and wonderful way.

After Falco, Udo Jürgens may be Austria's most famous non-classical music artist. The composer, singer and pianist left a legacy of more than 1000 songs he worked on, and released countless hits that everybody knows in all German speaking countries. Many young people may dismiss him as a schlager singer, but he never was that. He was a highly respected musician in both popular and serious music loving circles and his songs such as "Griechischer Wein" or "Ich war noch niemals in New York" are widely acknowledged as masterpieces of German language music. His music was also often contained sharp criticism and characterized social issues, but note that he was foremost a composer and singer, and only occasionally wrote lyrics. And even though I highly respect lyricists, his compositions are far more mind blowing anyway.

Blümchen was one of these artists that sold millions and millions of records yet nobody openly admitted to listening to her, until one and a half decades later nostalgia made it socially acceptable.
When she was successful I was still so young I didn't know her, but when as a teen I developed a taste for 90s eurodance music, her uber kawaii happy hardcore teen pop hybrid became irresistible to me. Really, half of her songs sound like openingas of magical girl animes. Who wouldn't love that?

Her stage name translates to "Little Flower" by the way (that "chen" being a bit like the Japanese "-chan" ending). She however released English language versions of her songs under the pseudonym Blossom. I'm glad she didn't use Flowey, which would arguably be the most accurate translation of her name, but two decades later, people would have thought of her of a homicidal soulless being from the Underground.

Ah yeah, Skrillex and Diplo. I really hope that one album wasn't their only one. There were some awesome drops in there, better than most things they released individually. It just didn't reach full potential yet. It was a bit short and there were too many unnecessary skits added. Therefore, some songs have a bit of an unfortunate structure ("Febreze" starts with the build up to a drop, then comes the drop, then the first verse, another build up with drop, then the second verse, then another build up... and then it cuts to a skit instead of a final drop).
But still, their self titled album really stands out positively.

Question: How do people from English language countries pronounced that name?

Stürmer definitely has the rock in her voice. When she came second in the Austrian talent search show Starmania it earned her national success as a pop singer, far more than the winner, but her career really began when she switched towards a more rock oriented style with a certain tomboyish attitude and became famous in Germany where she was compared to the band Silbermond. And "Ich lebe" is simply an awesome song (the 2005 rock recording, not the original way too soft pop version).

I have to say it again: Xavier Naidoo is musically great, no one in their right mind would argue with the fact that he is the biggest force in German soul and RnB, a lyrical poet and an emotional singer. And the same goes for his group Söhne Mannheims. As a solo artist, he is more successful, but nevertheless he likes to gather with his likeminded musicians and release some wonderfully soulful songs.

Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room: he is a horrible conspiracy theorist who believes satanic puppetmasters rule the world, that we live right before the apocalypse and that he is on a mission to save us. This goes beyond political criticism (which is definitely needed and very welcome) and straight into the same heavy paranoia B.O.B. suffers from.
So far, it was okay. He at best hinted at this in his music and the songs were more of a universal celebration of life and that we should look beyond our horizons. But on the last Söhne Mannheims album, they go so far as ...more

Metal band from Finland

I know them by their ska cover of Metallica's Master of Puppets. Very funny cover I like.