This story first appeared in the Sept. 19 print edition of The Budget.
In 2023, it was “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus. In 2024, it was Brat Summer with “Apple” by Charli XCX blasting into AirPods around the world. In recent years, a new seasonal phenomenon has taken music listeners by storm: bestowing the title “Song of the Summer” on a single track that perfectly encapsulates the essence of May 1st through August 31st.
Hopping on the trend, a team of global music editors at Spotify recently released their top five songs of the summer for the second year in a row. According to Spotify Newsroom, the top five are “based on Spotify data analyzing the tempos, rhythm stability, beat strength, and overall regularity of top summer tracks.”
As a frequent Spotify user and music enthusiast, I decided to take a splash into the top five songs of the summer. Here are my unprofessional takes on the musicality, cultural relevance, and overall catchy-ness of the major tracks of summer 2025.
- “Shake It To The Max (FLY)” – Remix, MOLIY, Silent Addy, Skillibeng, Sheneesa
Best Line: “Please just rewind, let me shake it to the max”
To fully appreciate the viral “Shake It To The Max (FLY)” remix (featuring Jamaican rappers Skillibeng and Shenseea), I had to listen to Ghanian-American singer MOLIY’s original version first. The chorus is catchy, and the beat is great. “Shake It To The Max (FLY)” gained viral attention after MOLIY posted a snippet of the song on Tiktok in October 2024. She triggered a global dance challenge, with over 235,000 Tiktoks featuring the song. Skillibeng and Shenseea elevated the track by adding seamless lyrical variety to an already infectiously catchy song. Whether on the remix or the original, MOLIY brought dancehall and Afrobeat fusion into focus for 2025 with a feel-good club anthem that’s perfect for dancing the summer away.
- “back to friends”, sombr
Best Line: “How can you look at me and pretend I’m someone you’ve never met?”
When I first listened to “back to friends”, I was struck by the skillful execution of the timeless yet complex instrumentals on this track. After hearing the overlapping background vocals in the intro and the melodic synth piano outro, I must admit to googling (twice) “is sombr really 19 years old and produced “back to friends” alone?” Yes, is the answer. This summer brought new breakout artists like sombr into the limelight, establishing a place for young and talented musicians to bring new sounds to the Billboard charts. “back to friends” will be remembered as the spark for a growing cult following of sombr, with fans already referring to themselves as ‘sombaddies’ and scrambling for tickets to see him live. Overall, sombr’s dramatic lovelorn sound is an exciting shift in pop music, and I’m eager to see what he creates next.
- “Manchild”, Sabrina Carpenter
Best Line: “Whole outfit you’re wearing, god I hope it’s ironic”
Sabrina Carpenter introduced her lead single from her new album “Man’s Best Friend” on Instagram as a “song embodiment of a loving eyeroll”, which perfectly nails its essence. Combining a slightly twangy beat with sassy verses, such as the iconic “stupid! slow! useless!” chant in the prechorus, Carpenter takes vicious jabs at the unnamed incompetent men in her life, creating a summer anthem for angry ex-girlfriends around the world. True to the title of her fifth studio album, “Short n’ Sweet”, Carpenter delivers a catchy sugar rush of a song that is enjoyable for the summer, but I doubt it will make a lasting impact in years to come.
- “Love Me Not”, Ravyn Lenae
Best Line: “Oh no, I don’t need you, but I miss you, come here”
After years of opening for iconic musicians such as NoName and SZA, R&B singer and Chicago native Ravyn Lenae broke into greater mainstream recognition through her hit single “Love Me Not” from her 2024 album, “Bird’s Eye”. “Love Me Not” is an example that less can often be more in music. Lenae proves that all you need to make a hit is an unbeatable bass line and relatable energy (oh, and a freakishly great voice plus a beat made by Anderson .Paak – but that’s beside the point). Exploring the messiness of situationships with lyrics like “He loves me not, he loves me, he holds me tight, then lets me go,” Lenae crafts a truly memorable song through expert lyrical storytelling and outstanding musicality – that will undoubtedly be on my playlists for years to come.
- “Ordinary”, Alex Warren
Best Line: “I want you laying me down ‘til we’re dead and buried”
Coming in hot at No. 1, “Ordinary” – Alex Warren’s chamber-pop anthem to his wife – was not only Spotify’s most-streamed song of the summer, but was also named the No. 1 global song of the summer 2025 by Billboard. This song checked all the boxes: heartfelt lyrics, well-organized instrumentals, a solid vocalist – but it by no means goes outside the box. “Ordinary” channels the musicality of older bands like Imagine Dragons and One Direction, and sounds thoroughly generic. Although the song doesn’t offer much that’s new, I do appreciate the return to a lovestruck pop sound.
Although the quest to find the perfect summer song is fun, no one song or album defines summer altogether. The music world is incomprehensibly vast, with thousands of truly outstanding songs that never reach even the bottom of the Billboard charts. The top five songs of the summer are merely a general compilation of what millions of strangers listened to the most on average. Much more important is what music you connected with this summer. No matter the season, everyone has a personal soundtrack that constantly changes, telling a story of what they love. Music hits everyone differently, and so does summer.
