INDIO, Calif. \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s still spring, but attendees at Coachella are already dreaming about what the so-called song of summer might be.<\/p>\n
The honor \u2014 a somewhat arbitrary one, to be sure \u2014\u00a0is awarded to whatever tune dominates airwaves and playlists between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Billboard, which tracks the most dominant tracks <\/a>from week to week, typically declares a winner<\/a> in September based on what was streamed, purchased and played on the radio during the summer, although frankly, the victor is also crowned somewhat on vibes. Historically, the chosen song is upbeat, easy to dance to and unavoidable, blasting from speakers through open windows and on crowded beaches throughout the warmer months, so much so that you\u2019re ready to never hear it again come fall.<\/p>\n Past songs of summer include earworms like \u201cCall Me Maybe\u201d by Carly Rae Jepsen and \u201cI Had Some Help\u201d by Morgan Wallen and Post Malone. But things took a turn for the soulful last year when Alex Warren\u2019s \u201cOrdinary\u201d emerged triumphant. The chart topper, which belongs to a genre that we\u00a0 dubbed \u201csecular praise music,<\/a>\u201d was unusually difficult to dance to for a summer song. It ended Morgan Wallen\u2019s two-year streak<\/a>, though his duet with Tate McRae, \u201cWhat I Want,\u201d came in second place.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s no debate and dissent about the culture-defining anthem of each season. For instance, Charli XCX never topped the charts in 2024, but who could deny the existence of Brat Summer?<\/a> During the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, I spoke with dozens of fans about their predictions. They might all have very different streaming service algorithms and relationships with the radio \u2014\u00a0RIP monoculture<\/a> \u2014\u00a0but they\u2019re certainly in-the-know about music. Here\u2019s what they told us.<\/p>\n Everyone really does want it to be 2016 again\u00a0<\/p>\n No shade to Alex Warren, but when I reminded Coachella attendees that he snagged last year\u2019s song of summer title, I was met with mostly groans. They wanted bangers and were particularly nostalgic for the music of 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need Drake,\u201d Haley, a 28-year-old from Los Angeles, tells me urgently. The world seemed a simpler place when \u201cOne Dance,\u201d<\/a> which debuted just before Coachella 2016, was the biggest song in the country, she explains.\u00a0 A new Drake album called \u201cIceman\u201d is reportedly defrosting <\/a>on May 15, but will it hit as hard now that\u00a0 Kendrick Lamar has eviscerated Drake <\/a>\u00a0in their legendary beef?<\/p>\n \u201cLiterally anything Justin Bieber\u201d was a prediction I heard from multiple influencers at Revolve Festival, the swag-and-content-creation extravaganza<\/a> that runs parallel to Coachella every year. Not a surprising sentiment, given that we spoke on the very day of Bieberchella, when chatter about the pop star was the go-to small talk conversation du jour.<\/p>\n In the weekend after his performance, Justin Bieber saw a 165% increase in streams on Spotify, according to data shared with Yahoo. That includes songs from his 2025 albums \u201cSwag\u201d and \u201cSwag II\u201d as well as decade-old hits, like 2012\u2019s \u201cBeauty And A Beat.\u201d Earlier this year, when there was a random wave of nostalgia for 2016,<\/a> \u201cLet Me Love You\u201d by DJ Snake and Justin Bieber also reentered the Global Top 50, according to Spotify.<\/p>\n Bieber\u2019s not the only artist to capitalize on culture\u2019s retro mood this year: Zara Larsson has had an astronomic rise with \u201cLush Life,\u201d a 2016 song that hit its highest peak on the charts in 2026 after Larsson wisely capitalized on a meme<\/a>, rebranded her style and went viral with a catchy new dance. Before she made a surprise appearance on stage with PinkPantheress<\/a>, several people invoked her name as a song of summer contender, including Veronica, a 21-year-old Coachella attendee from Sweden. She predicted that Larsson\u2019s 2025 bop \u201cMidnight Sun\u201d \u2014\u00a0which is as relentlessly summery as its name \u2014 would see a resurgence soon and climb the charts.<\/p>\n The main pop girls \u2014 and aspiring ones<\/p>\n The months leading up to Coachella 2024 served as a turning point<\/a> for two huge popstars who performed that year in front of massive crowds: Sabrina Carpenter, who released \u201cEspresso\u201d ahead of her set, and Chappell Roan, whose \u201cGood Luck Babe\u201d came out just a week before that. It yielded such a 180 for Carpenter\u2019s career, \u201cher Espresso<\/a>\u201d became shorthand for a breakout moment, or a \u201cticket out of the Khia asylum<\/a>\u201d as pop fans would say. Carpenter\u2019s moment has proved durable: As I stood around waiting for Carpenter\u2019s headlining Coachella set, multiple people told me \u201cHouse Tour,\u201d boosted by its Bling Ring-themed music video, could ascend to song of summer status.<\/p>\n But a new class of emerging pop girls is still in the running too. Slayyyter drew massive crowds<\/a> with her club-friendly sound paired with a belt buckle and a trucker hat, capturing what music is all about now \u2014\u00a0vibes and aesthetics. \u201cShe\u2019s really that girl,\u201d Jayvon, a 28-year-old from Dallas, tells me before yelling \u201cCRANK IT!\u201d<\/a> \u2014\u00a0a line from a Slayyyter song that has become a call-and-response for fans. Could her own version of Brat Summer be brewing?<\/p>\n K-pop girl group Katseye\u2019s performance generated buzz as well, though people weren\u2019t talking about their music. Just before Coachella \u2014 and the song they released right before it, \u201cPinky Up\u201d \u2014 the group announced that member Manon Bannerman would be going on hiatus<\/a>. Cheers on her behalf echoed across the desert between songs. The crowd\u2019s verdict on Katseye? I heard from many fans that while they put on an incredible show visually, they haven\u2019t found their best hit yet. Sorry, \u201cPinky Up.\u201d<\/p>\n I left Coachella before Olivia Rodrigo dropped her first single in years<\/a>, \u201cdrop dead,\u201d so I didn\u2019t get to do a vibe check. The following weekend, she debuted it on stage during Addison Rae\u2019s set, the performance for which I was berated the most for missing after I returned home.<\/p>\n Anything but country\u00a0<\/p>\n I mentioned earlier that country artist Morgan Wallen has claimed two of the last three songs of summer \u2014 and only narrowly missed winning last yeart Coachella, people were sick of it.<\/p>\n “No country. That’s enough country,\u201d Jessica, a 29-year-old from Orange County, tells me. \u201cNo Morgan Wallen,\u201d confirmed another person who overheard our conversation (the vibe at Stagecoach, Coachella\u2019s country music sister festival, will likely be very different next weekend). I sense Wallen strumming a new hit<\/a> as we speak.<\/p>\n If the charts have anything to say about it, country haters might be out of luck again this summer. Even as Coachella catapulted artists like Bieber and Carpenter to the upper echelon of cultural conversation, Ella Langley<\/a>, a rising country artist, was topping the charts with her new album\u00a0 \u201cDandelion\u201d and the single \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas\u201d clinching No. 1 on the Hot 100 for a seventh week.<\/p>\n But at Coachella, the artist I heard named more than any other (besides Bieber) was Don Toliver, who performed at Revolve Festival. Men especially \u2014\u00a0including TJ Palma from Love Island \u2014 shouted out the singer. His pick for song of summer is \u201cE85,\u201d which is extremely popular on TikTok<\/a>. Palma was there with his girlfriend and fellow Love Islander Iris Kendall, who pulled out her phone to confirm the name of her favorite artist of the moment, Sienna Spiro. \u201cShe\u2019s going to be big,\u201d Kendall tells me. Spiro\u2019s song \u201cDie on This Hill\u201d is also big on TikTok.<\/p>\n There are other dark horses in the race, too. I heard a lot of love for EDM and house music, particularly John Summit, a DJ who performed a surprise set at Coachella<\/a> and Anyma, a Coachella headliner who had to cancel his performance that weekend<\/a> because high winds put his set at risk (if you\u2019ve ever seen a Anyma set<\/a>, you know the scary robot person who appears behind him on screen is kind of a huge part of the draw). My husband will not stop telling me to listen to Nine Inch Noize<\/a>, a collaboration between rock band Nine Inch Nails and EDM producer Boys Noize, after livestreaming their performance from home.<\/p>\n I would be remiss not to mention how Taylor Swift was on many people\u2019s lips, though she has not released new music this year and is rumored to be getting married this summer. That suggests to me that she might be a little busy to do the song of summer circuit, but I know better than to underestimate her.<\/p>\n All in all, the vibe among festivalgoers was an almost desperate craving for something upbeat to shake ass to in the summertime \u2014 for what can only be called, knock on wood, recession pop<\/a>. People are reaching back into the catalogs of Bieber and overlooking years of distaste for Drake in search of an escapist banger. They\u2019re scrolling through their social media feeds in hopes that a new pop princess will be crowned. Pop stars, rappers, R&B singers and EDM dudes, hear our cry \u2014\u00a0the people need a danceable bop. You have until Memorial Day to turn in your assignment and have a shot at the song of summer.<\/p>\n