Beirut
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Artist · chart history

Beirut

Band Santa Fe United States Formed 2006 US indie/folk band

Beirut formed in 2006 in Santa Fe, United States. Beirut has 36 chart appearances on 25 radio countdowns from 14 stations on RockLists, spanning 2008–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Santa Fe”, which appears on 14 lists with a best position of #24. The station that charted Beirut most often is The Colorado Sound (Fort Collins–Denver, CO), with 8 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2011.

36appearances
25countdowns
11songs charted
14stations
0#1 finishes
2008–2026years

Beirut is the brainchild of Zach Condon, a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who started it in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2006 and has remained its only constant member. He named it after Lebanon's capital, a city with a history of conflict and a place where cultures collide, and the music follows suit: indie rock tangled up with Balkan folk and world music, all mournful brass and Condon's rich, weary croon.

The first gig with Nick Petree and Paul Collins came at the College of Santa Fe, and by May 2006 the band was playing New York with a full brass section in support of the debut, Gulag Orkestar. The Lon Gisland EP that year brought the lilting, horn-swollen "Elephant Gun", and The Flying Club Cup, in 2007, turned wistful and cabaret-tinged on "Nantes". The rotating cast around Condon has regularly included Petree on drums, Collins on bass, Kyle Resnick on trumpet, Ben Lanz on trombone and Aaron Arntz on piano and keyboards.

The Rip Tide, in 2011, trimmed the sound down to tighter, sunnier pop songs, with the bouncing "Santa Fe" and "A Candle's Fire" glowing softly. No No No, in 2015, and Gallipoli, in 2019, kept the brass and the melancholy, and the tally now runs to seven studio albums and four EPs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

Songs by Beirut on radio countdowns

#SongStrengthListsBest#1sPeak year
1 Santa Fe
753
14 #24 – 2011
2 No No No
223
5 #50 – 2015
3 Nantes
180
3 #20 – 2008
4 Postcards From Italy
138
3 #180 – –
5 Elephant Gun
113
2 #240 – –
6 Gibraltar
89
3 #75 – 2015
7 Landslide
58
2 #50 – 2019
8 East Harlem
40
1 #478 – –
9 A Candle's Fire
29
1 #64 – 2012
10 Perth
11
1 #105 – 2016
11 Gallipoli
4
1 #87 – 2019

Albums with charting songs

Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.

Year-end chart timeline

Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.

Every countdown appearance

Year#SongCountdown
2026 626 Gibraltar The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound
2025 462 Postcards From Italy 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century
2025 540 Santa Fe 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 21st Century
2024 206 Santa Fe The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs of the 21st Century
2024 995 No No No The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs of the 21st Century
2023 141 Santa Fe The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places
2023 184 Nantes The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places
2023 478 East Harlem The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places
2023 556 Gibraltar The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places
2023 735 Postcards From Italy The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places
2022 180 Postcards From Italy 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 2000s
2022 444 Elephant Gun 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the 2000s
2019 50 Landslide 90.9 The Bridge Top 90 Songs of 2019
2019 80 Landslide WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2019
2019 87 Gallipoli WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2019
2019 240 Elephant Gun KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time
2019 375 Nantes KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time
2019 481 Santa Fe KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time
2019 522 Santa Fe WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019
2019 522 Santa Fe WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019
2018 353 Santa Fe WTMD Listeners' Top 897 Songs, 2003-2018
2016 105 Perth WBER Listener Countdown 2016
2016 112 No No No WYEP 913 Countdown 2016
2015 50 No No No The Current Top 89 Songs of 2015
2015 53 No No No WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2015
2015 59 No No No Lightning 100 Top 100 Songs of 2015
2015 75 Gibraltar WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2015
2013 336 Santa Fe WXPN 885 Greatest Songs of the New Millennium (2013)
2012 64 A Candle's Fire The Current Top 89 Songs of 2012
2011 24 Santa Fe WXPN Year in Review: Top 100 Songs of 2011
2011 36 Santa Fe WRSI Top 93 Songs of 2011
2011 40 Santa Fe WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2011
2011 40 Santa Fe WTMD Top 89 Songs of 2011
2011 69 Santa Fe WXPK Top 107 Songs of 2011
2011 89 Santa Fe Triple J Hottest 100 of 2011
2008 20 Nantes Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 2008

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