If you want to cross borders as a European artist, you had better sing in English. This may not come as a huge surprise, but the extent of the US domination of European airwaves and download charts might. A new report by Emmanuel Legrand, commissioned by the European Music Office and Eurosonic Noorderslag, shows how difficult it is for European artists to gain pan-European success, even if their lyrics are in English – and if you're a rock act, you may as well pack up and go home.

The study, based on data supplied by measurement and analytics company Nielsen, looked at the top 200 airplayed (taking into consideration the size of each station's audience) and legally downloaded tracks in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Poland, as well as on a pan-European level. From September 2010 to August 2011, with the exception of Adele, only American acts – including Jennifer Lopez, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas – managed to top the charts across Europe. That is, apart from Frenchman David Guetta, who is responsible for most of the tracks that helped put France in third place when it comes to pan-European airplay, after the US and the UK. One can, of course, argue almost all of his hits feature American artists. In fourth place is Barbados, which shows the stronghold Rihanna has on European playlists and the resulting downloads (in the download chart, France and Barbados switch places).

For artists from countries where English isn't the native language there is, however, one genre that works better than any other: dance music. How else could Romania have landed in fifth place in the pan-European download chart? Romanian acts seem to succeed with the type of music played at Mediterranean resorts, tracks such as Edward Maya's Stereo Love and Alexandra Stan's Mr Saxobeat. Romanian Inna has even managed to sustain a relatively long career, starting with 2009's Hot.

Similarly, the popularity of Dutch acts such as Afrojack, Tiësto and Armin van Buuren, as well as Swedish acts Swedish House Mafia and Avicii has not been hampered by their origins. They're even breaking America. There may be a few reasons for this. Clubbing culture has been deeply entrenched in Europe for decades. In dance music it's generally more important how lyrics sound than what they actually mean. Artists with English as a second language can be less judgmental about what's deemed a cliche. However, some lyrics sound as if the artist has just kept the initial gibberish lyrics they used to work out the melody. For example: "You make me this/ Bring me up/ Bring me down/ Playing sweet/ Make me move like a freak/ Mister Saxobeat." Then again, singing along to it in a club in Faliraki works really well.

A country consistently punching above its weight internationally, particularly when it comes to songwriters, is my native Sweden. It's one of only three countries in the world whose net export of music exceeds its imports – the other two being the US and the UK. Though there are no Swedish artists in the top 10 most-played tracks in Europe, Swedes are behind Taio Cruz's Dynamite (at No 4) and Pink's Raise Your Glass (No 5) (though neighbouring Norway is not included in the report, Norwegians Stargate are behind Katy Perry's Firework (No 7) and Rihanna's Only Girl (No 8). Swedes, including RedOne, were also behind the most downloaded track in Europe: Jennifer Lopez's On the Floor.

The airplay figures may help to explain this Swedish "phenomenon". Of the countries surveyed, Swedish radio showed the most support for local talent, with almost 38% of their music coming from Swedish artists. In Germany, only around 15% of airplay came from German artists. Even France fell short of its government-imposed French-speaking quotas on the radio (35-45% depending on formats), with only 25% of the music in French and 31% from French artists.

It's worth pointing out that even though Swedish radio plays the most local artists, only 10% sing in Swedish, illustrating how Swedish artists aim for international success (as well as many opting for English as a language more suitable for pop). Is there a connection between this support and the Swedish songwriting phenomenon? Is there a connection between Germany's paltry percentage of local repertoire on the radio and their lack of pan-European success?

The research shows a correlation between airplay and download sales, and Swedish radio's support of domestic talent has resulted in local artists grabbing more than 44% of all download sales in Sweden, by far the highest of all countries surveyed.

Though independent labels are doing well in a few countries, with 23% of the download market in Sweden and a whopping 34% of the Dutch market, Impala (the international organisation representing independent music companies) may use the study's data in their fight against the Universal/EMI merger, as it would give Universal 53% of the whole download market in Europe.

And what about rock acts? The genre is almost non-existent in the European listings, with a few exceptions – apparently Black Sabbath and Deep Purple do OK in Poland.

Pan-European top 10 most-played tracks

1. Just the Way You Are – Bruno Mars

2. Rolling in the Deep – Adele

3. Grenade – Bruno Mars

4. Dynamite – Taio Cruz

5. Raise Your Glass – Pink

6. Stay the Night – James Blunt

7. Firework – Katy Perry

8. Only Girl (In the World) – Rihanna

9. Price Tag – Jessie J feat BoB

10. Hello – Martin Solveig and Dragonette

Pan-European top 10 most-downloaded tracks

1. On the Floor – Jennifer Lopez

2. Only Girl (In the World) – Rihanna

3. Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO feat Lauren Bennett and Goonrock

4. Just the Way You Are – Bruno Mars

5. Grenade – Bruno Mars

6. Rolling in the Deep – Adele

7. Give Me Everything – Pitbull feat Ne-Yo, Afrojack

8. The Time (dirty bit) – Black Eyed Peas

9. Price Tag – Jessie J feat BoB

10. Someone Like You – Adele