Shout-out for yodeling? Swiss seek recognition from UN cultural agency
as tradition turns modern
[November 05, 2025]
By JAMEY KEATEN
LUCERNE, Switzerland (AP) — Yodel-ay-hee ... what?! Those famed yodeling
calls that for centuries have echoed through the Alps, and more recently
have morphed into popular song and folk music, could soon reap a
response — from faraway Paris.
Switzerland's government is looking for a shout-out from U.N. cultural
agency UNESCO, based in the French capital, to include the tradition of
yodeling on its list of intangible cultural heritage. A decision is
expected by year-end.
Modern-day promoters emphasize that the yodel is far more than the
mountain cries of yesteryear by falsetto-bellowing male herders in
suspenders who intone alongside giant alphorn instruments atop verdant
hillsides. It’s now a popular form of singing.
Over the last century, yodeling clubs sprouted up in Switzerland,
building upon the tradition and broadening its appeal — with its tones,
techniques and tremolos finding their way deeper into the musical
lexicon internationally in classical, jazz and folk. U.S. country
crooners prominently blended yodels into their songs in the late 1920s
and 30s.
About seven years ago, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and
Arts became the first Swiss university to teach yodeling.
“For me, actually, in Switzerland we have four languages but I think
really we have five languages. We have a fifth: The yodel," said Nadja
Räss, a professor at the university, alluding to the official German,
French, Italian and Romansh languages in Switzerland. Yodeling exists in
neighboring Austria, Germany and Italy, but Swiss yodeling is
distinctive because of its vocal technique, she said.
In its early days, yodeling involved chants of wordless vowel sounds, or
“natural yodeling,” with melodies but no lyrics. More recently,
“yodeling song” has included verses and a refrain.
The Swiss government says at least 12,000 yodelers take part through
about 780 groups of the Swiss Yodeling Association.
In Switzerland, Räss said, yodeling is built on the “sound colors of the
voice” and features two types: one centering on the head — with a “u”
sound — and one emanating from deeper down in the chest — with an “o”
sound.
And even within Switzerland, styles vary: Yodeling in the northern
region near Appenzell is more “melancholic, slower,” while in the
country's central regions, the sounds are “more intense and shorter,”
she said.
What began as mostly a male activity is now drawing more women in a
country that adopted universal suffrage in 1971. The
Appenzell-Innerrhoden region only gave equal voting rights to women in
local elections in 1990, following a high court ruling.
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Yodel teacher Nadja Raess yodels with students at the Music High
School in Lucerne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP
Photo/Michael Probst)
 Julien Vuilleumier, a scientific
adviser for the Federal Office of Culture who is spearheading the
Swiss request, said it's tough to trace the origins of yodeling,
which factors into the imagery of the Swiss Alps.
“Some say it's a means of communication between
valleys, using these very distinctive sounds that can carry a long
way. Others believe it's a form of singing," he said. "What we know
is that ... yodeling has always been transformed and updated.”
UNESCO’s government-level committee for Intangible Heritage will
decide in mid-December in New Delhi. The classification aims to
raise public awareness of arts, craftsmanship, rituals, knowledge
and traditions that are passed down over generations.
Also among the 68 total nominations this year are traditions like
Thanakha face powder in Myanmar; Ghanaian highlife music; the
fermented Kyrgyz beverage Maksym; and the El Joropo music and dance
tradition in Venezuela.
The list is different from the UNESCO World Heritage List, which
enshrines protections for physical sites that are considered
important to humanity, like the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
Last year, Japan's famed sake — the smooth rice wine — was one of
more than 60 honorees in the intangible heritage list, alongside
things like the Nowruz spring festival in parts of central Asia, and
the skills and knowledge of zinc roofers in Paris.
Räss of the Lucerne university says that candidates for the
intangible heritage list are asked to specify the future prospects
of cultural traditions.
“We figured out some projects to bring it to the future. And one of
those is that we bring the yodel to the primary school,” said Räss,
who herself grew up yodeling. She said 20 Swiss school teachers know
how to yodel and are trying it with their classes.
"One of my life goals is that when I will die, in Switzerland every
school child will be in contact with yodeling during their primary
school time,” she said. “I think it’s a very good chance for the
future of the yodel to be on that (UNESCO) list.”
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