Germany: Anti-Islam Pegida anthem Gemeinsam Sind Wir Stark dethrones Adele's Hello from music charts

An anti-Islamic movement's anthem has knocked Adele's Hello off the top of the music charts in Germany. The wordless hymn Gemeinsam Sind Wir Stark (Together We Are Strong) was released just before Christmas to raise funds for the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West (Pegida) group.

It quickly raced up the charts, despite being widely ridiculed for its simplistic style and absence of any lyrics. On 30 December, after four days in the top 10 of Amazon's for best-selling singles, the anthem snatched the top spot from Adele's ballad.

The song's video has found an audience on YouTube, with more than 130,000 views in a few days. Both on Amazon and YouTube the song drew critical comments from members of the public, with some describing it as "excruciating" and "dumb".

Other mocked the absence of lyrics saying it well represented the program Pegida stands for. Supporters of the group instead wrote more generous reviews, with many saying they were happy to fund its future activities by purchasing the song.

Pegida started as a protest group in October 2014 and mushroomed into a movement of 20,000 people. In its heartland of Dresden, rallies were held every Monday to express frustration against Muslims, migrants and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In January it started to lose supporters, especially after pictures of group founder Lutz Bachmann posing as Hitler went viral. Pegida's fortunes were revived this summer by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees. In June, a Pegida candidate received 9.6% of the vote in Dresden.