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Check Out Our Updated Songs of Summer Predictions (Complete With Five New Wild Card Picks)

July 25, 2024

Last month, Spotify’s annual Songs of Summer predictions made their return, and fans have rallied around the anthems they can’t get enough of. Some have been working late (…’cuz they’re a singer), while plenty have been feeling so Julia. Meanwhile, others have been looking for someone to match their freak. 

Now, for the first time ever, we’re giving you a midsummer update that reveals the top 15 songs from our original list, along with five new “wild card” songs. These updated predictions reflect our final contenders for the Song of Summer as we approach the end of the season.

Backed by Spotify data and cultural buzz, and hand-picked by our global team of editors, our wild cards were either released after we made our initial predictions, or they’ve experienced a recent spike in global streams. Wild card track “360” by Charli xcx, for example, has experienced an 80% increase in U.S. streams in the past month, while streams of “HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan have spiked 110% globally on Spotify. 

Spotify’s updated Songs of Summer list 

(Listed alphabetically by artist first name; wild card picks in italics) 

Over the last year, we’ve seen increased popularity of dance and Afro house globally, and summer is the perfect time for these songs to cross over into the mainstream.

“‘Move’ has been an undeniable hit this summer and an obvious choice for our editors as one of our wild card additions,” said Luisa Kristen, Senior Editor, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at Spotify. “The song features the perfect recipe of beautiful Afro house production, earwormy melody, and pop lyricism—sounds that tend to thrive with listeners in warmer weather globally.”

Luisa also noted that in the last few weeks, the song has charted all around the world across many parts of Europe, the U.K., and the U.S. It drove record streams for the German group globally on its release day and was recently added to Today’s Top Hits—a monumental achievement for German artists and the Afro house genre overall. 

“Stumblin’ In,” which was released in November 2023, is also a strong example of how a song can have an extensive lifespan, cross borders, and experience a cultural resurgence during different moments of the year. It highlights the power of Spotify—our editors have tested it in various playlists, and since its release, it has grown and reached new listeners around the world. 

Tinashe’s “Nasty” also surged during the first two weeks of the Songs of Summer predictions reveal, both globally and in the U.S. Since then, the song has seen over a 110% increase in streams globally and in the U.S.

Celebrating 2024’s Songs of Summer

To continue the summer fun, we hosted our 2024 Songs of Summer event in Brooklyn this week, featuring electric performances from two of our contenders, Tinashe and Tommy Richman.

Local Artists Help Santiago, Chile, Solidify Its Status as Spotify’s ‘Streaming Capital of Reggaetón’

May 20, 2022

Since 2018, Chile’s capital, Santiago, has led the world when it comes to reggaetón streams on Spotify. And in 2019, this inspired us to call it the “streaming capital of reggaetón.” Fast-forward to 2022, and Santiago is still on top.

Recently, however, there’s been one big difference: While reggaetón was historically produced outside Chile, there’s now a wave of local Chilean artists gaining prominence inside its borders and beyond.

“Since we launched the Reggaetón Chileno playlist in 2019, we saw that Chile was a market with a lot of potential for the development of an urban scene. With so many millions of fans of the genre, it makes sense a new scene of young artists would develop,” Rodrigo Decono, Spotify’s Music Editorial Manager for the Southern Cone of South America, told For the Record. “Today we see that the talent was always there—Spotify just needed to support it. Above all, the Chilean audience itself needed to accept them, just as it did with artists from Puerto Rico, Colombia, and the rest of Latin America.”

The data backs this up. Almost 40% of Chile’s Top 50 music chart is composed of local artists. As a result, the total streams of Spotify’s Reggaetón Chileno playlist grew by 2,600% over the past year.

What characterizes the Chilean urban genre is that it portrays the realities and struggles that the artists face in their lives. Spotify has helped these artists bring their music to a wider audience—not only to fans domestically, but to listeners in Mexico, Argentina, and the United States who also love the Chilean sound.