TONSBERG, NORWAY – JULY 10: Alex Warren performs on stage during Slottsfjell festival at Slottsfjellet on July 10, 2025 in Tonsberg, Norway. (Photo by Anne-Marie Forker/Redferns)
Redferns
What is 2025’s Song of the Summer? As Labor Day looms, we still don’t have an answer—but there’s a solid pool of candidates.
But what makes up a Song of the Summer? We’ve boiled it down to five hallmarks, though not every song follows all of them.
First, it’s not simply a hit. It’s a runaway smash, ideally spending weeks, if not months, at the top of the charts.
A bright and breezy vibe is key. The Song of the Summer, by definition, cannot be a bummer—at least not musically. We’re looking for day-glo melodies instead of autumnal hues.
It needs to make direct impact in June, July or August. Sure, a spring chart-topper can continue its reign into the summer, but it will never shake the scent of the school year.
At its best, the Song of the Summer reaches audiences far beyond its artist or genre’s typical crowd. It becomes a household hook, inevitably co-opted by brands, politicians, late-night hosts and your parents. In the TikTok era, that now extends to trends and memes that refuse to stop popping up in your feed.
Finally, the ideal Song of the Summer never ends its reign gracefully—it thoroughly wears out its welcome. How many of us ended the season declaring we never wanted to hear “Macarena,” “I Gotta Feeling,” or (last year’s frontrunner) “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” ever again?
There isn’t always a clear winner, and—barring some viral sensation taking the world by storm in the next two weeks—2025 might just be such a year. On the bright side, that’s a big win for savvy pop listeners who prefer not to hear any one tune driven into the ground.
OK, we’ve established the rules—now let’s get to the playlist.
1. Alex Warren – “Ordinary”
Release date: February 7, 2025
The YouTuber-turned-singer-songwriter’s folksy power ballad is the clear front-runner in terms of commercial dominance. “Ordinary” has now spent 10 non-consecutive weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100. It has also transcended genres, seen in Warren’s surprise duet of the song with country star Luke Combs at last month’s Lollapalooza. But given its languorous pace, is it more of a Slog of the Summer? It might not sound the typical windows-down anthem, but it’s an ideal soundtrack for a late-night bonfire.
2. HUNTR/X, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI – “Golden”
Release date: June 20, 2025
The standout track from Netflix’s sensation KPop Demon Hunters became the first K-Pop song to top Billboard’s Hot 100 earlier this month. While the entire soundtrack has dominated streaming charts, “Golden” is in its own orbit. It’s an effervescent earworm, boasting a sky-high melody that takes pop hooks to new, atmosphere-piercing heights.
3. Sabrina Carpenter – “Manchild”
Release date: June 5, 2025
Sabrina Carpenter didn’t quite match the success of 2024 juggernaut “Espresso” here—though unlike that song, “Manchild” topped the Hot 100 (in its first week, no less). Her hotly anticipated album Man’s Best Friend will likely pack a bigger banger or two, or twelve—plus that upcoming feature on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl—but pop fans will look back fondly on “Manchild” (and its playful video) as a fun summer fling.
4. ROLE MODEL – “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out”
Release date: February 14, 2025
A ’70s country-rock throwback with Gen-Z spunk, Role Model’s slow-and-steady chart success was destined for windows-down highway drives, and it has charmed many a listener—including Natalie Portman, Kate Hudson, and Olivia Rodrigo, who’ve each taken the stage with Role Model to dance along.
5. sombr – “Back to Friends”
Release date: December 27, 2024
“How can we go back to being friends when we just shared a bed?” 20-year-old Shane Boose wrestles with that question through waves of reverb on “Back to Friends.” The track has been a slow-burning but persistent presence on the charts since its release at the end of 2024, and cleverly twists the guitar wash and stiff beats of 2010s indie-rock into mainstream pop paydirt.
6. Disco Lines and Tinashe – “No Broke Boys (Remix)”
Release date: June 6, 2025
This TikTok-ready remix of R&B star Tinashe’s 2024 single landed on social media and streaming at the start of June, and has turned into a global dance smash for her and American EDM artist Disco Lines. It’s just cracked the Top 50 on Billboard and is racking up 2.5 million daily streams on Spotify.
7. Ravyn Lenae – “Love Me Not”
Release date: May 3, 2024
Potential: Released more than a year ago, this slice of ‘60s soul-pop has been a global mainstream breakthrough for Lenae, an indie and critical favorite for the past decade. It’s currently peaking at No. 6 on the Hot 100.
8. Chappell Roan – “The Subway”
Release date: July 31, 2025
Chappell Roan’s latest single could have been 2024’s Song of the Summer—the pop phenom performed an early version of the ballad at her massive festival sets that year—but as she told fans upon its release last month, she needed “time to build the world the song deserved.” The wait paid off—“The Subway” debuted at No. 3, already besting the chart performance of her previous standalone single, “The Giver.”
9. Morgan Wallen and Tate McRae – “What I Want”
Release date: May 16, 2025
Many of Tate McRae’s fans made their displeasure known when the pop star revealed a collaboration with Wallen, country music’s chair-throwing, slur-hurling, Grammy-withdrawing lightning rod. He’s also the biggest crossover success the genre has seen since Taylor Swift. Wallen’s first-ever duet with a female artist—in which both parties claim a one or two-night stand is all they’re looking for—became his fourth chart-topper on the Hot 100, and McRae’s first.
10. Justin Bieber – “Daisies”
Release date: July 11, 2025
Just a lone electric guitar, bass, drums and Bieber. The former teen-pop idol underwent a drastic sonic makeover on his new album SWAG, reaching new heights with the guidance of indie masters Dijon and Mk.Gee—much like Justin Timberlake did with the Neptunes and Timbaland. The standout “Daisies” is a classic pop gem in lo-fi dressing, and debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 last month. It’s still holding strong in the top 10.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davepaulson/2025/08/21/song-of-the-summer-2025-top-contenders/
