2016 in European music

• 13 February – All four members of British rock band Viola Beach, and their manager, are killed when their car crashes off a bridge and into a river in Södertälje, Sweden.[1]
• 22 April – Romania is forced to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest because of failure to repay an old debt.[2]
• 14 May – Ukraine win the Eurovision Song Contest, in Stockholm, Sweden, with the song "1944", performed by Jamala.

• Main article for Scandinavian music in 2016

Dutch #1 singles

• Main article for Irish music in 2016

• Main article for British music in 2016

• German number ones
• EFF, a project of Felix Jaehn is immediately successful with their first single "Stimme".
• Kurdish-German rapper Azad, Bosse, Schiller, AnnenMayKantereit, all have #1 albums.

• Swiss #1s

• French #1s
• Imany has a European hit with "Don't be so shy", with a #1 in Germany, Austria, Poland and Russia.

Italian number ones

• List of Polish #1 singles
• Czech #1 singles
• Hungarian #1 singles

• 2 January – Michel Delpech, French singer-songwriter and actor, 69
• 9 January – Jānis Vaišļa, Latvian musician (Pirates of the Sea), 46 (cardiac amyloidosis)[3]
• 6 February – Eddy Wally, Belgian singer, 83[4]
• 21 February – Piotr Grudziński, 40, Polish guitarist (Riverside).[5]
• 22 February – Hans Reffert, German musician and composer, 69[6]
• 23 February – Johnny Murphy, Irish musician and actor (The Commitments), 72 [7]
• 5 March – Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Austrian conductor and cellist, 86[8]
• 5 March – François-Eudes Chanfrault, French composer, 41[9]
• 22 April — Ojārs Grīnbergs, Latvian singer, 73[10][11]
• 26 April – Gabriele Sima, Austrian opera singer, 61[12]
• 29 April – Dmytro Hnatyuk, Ukrainian operatic baritone, 91[13]
• 11 May – Peter Behrens, German drummer, actor, musician, and clown, 68[14]
• 17 May – Huguette Dreyfus, French harpsichordist, 87[15]Huguette Dreyfus, 87, French harpsichordist.[16]
• 2 June – Corry Brokken, Dutch singer, Eurovision Song Contest 1957 winner, 83[17]
• 26 July – Roye Albrighton, German musician (Nektar), 67[18]
• 27 July – Einojuhani Rautavaara, Finnish composer, 87[19]
• 7 August – Dolores Vargas, Spanish singer, 80[20]
• 22 August – Toots Thielemans, Belgian jazz musician, 94[21]

• European Music Council