"The Instituto Cervantes' annual report, El español en el mundo, is out, and it reveals that Ricky Martin is the Spanish-language "icon" (that's what they call them) whose name appears highest on the world's search engine rankings. (He also appears in the music rankings, several places above Beethoven.)
I should have known. What I didn't know is that apparently young Norwegians are now using Spanish slang, rather than English, to pepper their conversation : "adios", "hola", "caramba", "nena" or "vale", and lots of Spanish swearwords are apparently to be heard in the clubs and bars of Oslo on a Saturday night. And in Denmark, more people now study Spanish at university than either French or German. So Spanish, perhaps as a by-product of global warming, is spreading northwards. More here (in Spanish, obviously). A couple of oddities: in the world literature rankings, Cervantes only comes in at No. 20, one ahead of García Márquez. And who's second in the Spanish music rankings after Ricky? None other than Santana. And who's the highest ranking film person? Mr Banderas, of course."