Your Hanze Song Playlist, week 1: pop tunes

What song best describes your student life in Groningen? Each week we will add your favorite songs to the Your Hanze Song Playlist on Spotify. We will also share the stories behind the songs here. This week, we focus on the pop songs that you guys sent in.

The stories
First, we have a song which will sound familiar to High school Musical fans. Yannick, who studies International Communication, picked ‘What time is it’ from Highschool Musical 2 as his Hanze song. ‘While at Hanze, it quite often happened that somebody would ask what time is it? and I always instantly had this song in my head as an answer. The only right answer to the question is obviously, without a doubt, summertime!’

International Marketing Management student Adriana does not have one specific Hanze song, ‘When I started university, during my first months, I got obsessed with the group Milky Chance, because a classmate loved them. So, I started listening to them every day for a few months straight and now every time I listen to their songs, I recall these first months at Hanze.’ Since we had to pick a song, we went for their most famous hit, Stolen Dance.

Franziska Preiss, who studies International Communication, picks ‘Changes’ by Ilse DeLange as her Hanze song. ‘The singer is from the Netherlands and she describes that we have to make changes in our lives in order to move on and reach our goals.’ The lyric that best describes this, according to Franziska, is We have got to make changes, even if they change us. Franziska explains ‘I often listen to this song when I feel homesick or insecure and stressed. This song always makes me feel more positive again, because it shows me that I am not alone with my worries.’

Other songs added this week

‘Kids in the corner’ by Amber van Day. ‘The song reminds me of my time at Hanze because since the pandemic everyone kind of feels weird one way or another, but we are all in this together, even if the university is making our lives a little harder with all the added stress’, said International communication student Aila.

‘Never give up’ by Sia. ‘As I have to work so hard for school, I need to remind myself that I have to keep going and that I should never give up’, said International communication student Rania Mori.