Trivia Thursday: 20 Q’s on Music

Welcome to Trivia Thursday, Expat Living’s weekly quiz where you get the chance to test your grey matter! How about challenging a friend or family member to see who gets the most questions right? You can get together with them over Zoom, Houseparty or Google Hangouts.

Each week, we’ll put together a new quiz of 20 questions covering trivia topics relating to pop culture, geography, history, language and more. This one is all about music!

#1 What was the name of last year’s biopic film about Elton John?

#2 Which singer did not appear on children’s TV show The Mickey Mouse Club as a “Mouseketeer”: Jessica Simpson, Justin Timberlake or Britney Spears?

#3 Gamelan is the traditional music of which country?

#4 Studies have shown that termites chew wood up to two times faster when listening to which genre of music? 

#5 What 1980s hit song was recorded by Katrina and the Waves?

#6 Which famous Austrian composer died in 1791 at the age of 35?

#7 Which is the only one of the four basic mathematical symbols (+, –,×, ÷) that isn’t the title of an Ed Sheeran album?

#8 Actor Steve Martin is known for playing which instrument?

#9 Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison were all how old when they died?

#10 Who interrupted Taylor Swift’s 2009 speech at the MTV Video Music Awards?

#11 Which Beatle married Cynthia?

#12 CDs were first sold in music stores in which year: 1971, 1982 or 1987?

#13 There are many instruments with a “peg box”, “fingerboard” and “bridge”, but which one has all of those and also a “chin rest”? 

#14 The ABBA song “Mamma Mia” topped the charts in 1976. Which famous song that it overtook in the number one spot also includes those two words in its lyrics?

#15 What was the name of the American girl group that Beyoncé used to be in?

#16 Which children’s song uploaded to YouTube by a South Korean education brand in 2016 has over 5 billion views?

#17 Who composed “Ride of the Valkyries”, which was famously played through loudspeakers mounted onto army helicopters in the film Apocalypse Now?

#18 Which long-standing English rock band (initials DL) has a drummer with only one arm?

#19 What is the name of the wind instrument invented by indigenous Australians?

#20 Who has won more Grammy awards, Barack or Michelle Obama?

BONUS

(If you can answer correctly after the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require to identify the person.)

I’m a famous singer born in Michigan in 1958. (10)
At the age of 15, I was grounded for a summer for sneaking out to a David Bowie concert. (9)
I moved to New York City at age 20 to pursue a dance and music career. (8)
One of the early bands I performed with was called Breakfast Club. (7)
I quickly found success as a solo artist after this, and was a global bestselling music artist by 1984, aged just 26. (6)
I’m still releasing music today – my latest album, Madame X, came out last year. (5)
I’ve appeared in many films, and have won a Golden Globe for Best Actress. (4)
I’m the wealthiest woman in the music business, with an estimated net worth of up to US$800 million. (3)
My biggest hits include “Holiday”, “Like a Virgin” and “Vogue”. (2)
I am _____? (1)

All the answers (no cheating!)

#1 Rocketman
#2 Jessica Simpson
#3 Indonesia
#4 Heavy metal / hard rock
#5 “Walking on Sunshine”
#6 Mozart
#7 – (the minus symbol)
#8 Banjo
#9 27
#10 Kanye West
#11 John Lennon
#12 1982
#13 Violin (or viola)
#14 “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
#15 Destiny’s Child
#16 “Baby Shark”
#17 Richard Wagner
#18 Def Leppard (Rick Allen lost his left arm in a crash in 1984 but continues to drum for the band to this day)
#19 Didgeridoo
#20 Barack Obama (he won Best Spoken Word Album in 2006 and 2008; Michelle Obama won the same award in 2020) 

BONUS: Madonna

Now try some Science trivia!

Looking for other fun activities? See our Things to Do section.

Shamus Sillar

While he has worked as a magazine editor since 2003, Shamus also has a PhD in Roman History (useful!) and is a published author. He writes mostly on travel but also covers food, history, sport, trivia and more, across Expat Living’s publications and websites in Singapore and Hong Kong.