Professional Fangirl- Katelyn Benschoter
The school year has just begun, and our summer tan lines are starting to fade. That means it’s time to reflect and ponder:what was the song of the summer? The song of each summer is that song that you just can’t escape; no matter how hard you try to resist, you just have to sing along to the chorus. As we look at years prior, notable songs of the summer have been Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso”, “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, and “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd. These songs tend to capture the “vibe” of that summer and usually correlate with trends or popular media. That being said, looking at the summer of 2025, there is a lack of songs that fall into these categories. And I am here to report that the 2025 song of the summer is being reported missing!
The missing case of the song of the summer is quite strange as there has been no shortage of new music this summer. There were new albums from Sabrina Carpenter, Renee Rapp, Justin Bieber, Conan Gray, and many more mainstream artists. Yet, when thinking of the past summer there are not any standout songs that earn the title. I have some personal favorite songs from this past summer, like “Bowling Alley” by Audrey Hobert or “Leave Me Alone” by Renee Rapp, but those by no means were most people’s songs of the summer. All that aside, there are a few contenders that came close, so let’s break those down and explore why they fell short of earning the title of song of the summer.
The first song that initially felt like it had the potential of being the song of the summer was “Manchild” by last year’s song of the summer holder Sabrina Carpenter. Carpenter is known for her upbeat pop hits with comedic and clever lyrics. When she announced she had a new song coming out only a year after her wildly successful album Short and Sweet it was assumed this would be another massive success. While the song did decent in terms of numbers, it seemed that people were generally left disappointed. It received criticisms of being unoriginal and having boring lyricism. Carpenter also received loads of backlash during the announcement of her latest album Man’s Best Friend for “setting women back”, and has frankly been getting attacked on social media because of it. That being said, regardless of the song, I think the world was unfortunately not in a place for Carpenter to have another song of the summer. While the song did have good attempts such as viral TikTok dance, it ultimately did fall short. The die-hard fans of Carpenter enjoyed it, but unlike “Espresso” it failed to gain popularity with the general audience and therefore cannot be declared the song of the summer.
This next song should statistically be the song of the summer based on the charts, but still does not quite earn the title. That song would be “Ordinary” by Alex Warren. To be completely honest, this song has not been on my radar until very recently. I simply had not ever heard it for almost the entirety of the summer. According to Spotify it was the most streamed song of the summer and it held the number one spot on the Billboard charts from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
I consider myself to be very knowledgeable about popular music, and generally have a “basic” music taste. And the fact that I had not heard of this song until about a month ago immediately takes it out of the running for me. But even just looking at the song, it is not “song of the summer” material. The song is relatively slow, and has a sound that is reminiscent of worship music or Christian pop. And while this song does have appeal to a selective group of listeners, this just is not what I consider mainstream music. There were no trends incorporating the song, the hook of the song is not super catchy or memorable, and there are no pop culture connections to it. In my opinion it’s a fine song, but to put it simply: it’s forgettable. The song of the summer must be a song that you can’t escape—and, frankly, I barely even knew this one existed.
The final song that came close to being the song of the summer was “Love Me Not” by Rayvn Lenae. If I had to choose one song that had to be the song of the summer, I would choose this one. I think, out of these three songs, this was the most consistent song I heard throughout the entire summer. I recall sitting on a lake with my friends in early June, and as we were tanning this song played. I asked her what it was called, and three months later it was one of the most played songs of the summer. “Love Me Not” is a surprise runner for song of the summer as this was Rayvn Leane’s breakout hit. But that being said it still does not make the cut for me. Despite being relatively upbeat—and catchy enough—it was forgettable. It is one of those songs when you hear it you recognize it and realize you have not heard it in a while, and then immediately forget about it again. “Love Me Not” is a good, upbeat R&B song that I won’t complain about if it came on, but simply just doesn’t have the same “it” factor that previous songs of the summer have had.
In conclusion, I have been loving the amount of new music that has been coming out. It brings me so much joy to find new songs and albums. And while I had so many new songs I loved listening to this summer, the song of the summer remained missing. It is a strange phenomenon, as I cannot recall any other summers that experienced this same drought of popular songs. Especially in comparison to last summer, it felt like I could easily think of 5 songs that people may consider the song of the summer to be. That being said summer is now over, which means the case has gone cold and there were no sightings of a 2025 song of the summer. Here’s to hoping that next summer the drought will be over!