The powers that be are so eager to rush the end of summer. It’s not even Labor Day yet, and we’re already seeing fall fashion trend predictions and summer Instagram dumps en masse. It’s a hard pill to swallow for those of us who believe summer doesn’t end until the weather dips below 60 degrees, though even I, a staunch summer supremacist, can admit it feels wrong to continue advocating for the season now that Spotify has released its 2026 song-of-the-summer picks.
While we were busy defending our personal selections at NYLON HQ, Spotify was hard at work sifting through streaming data, analyzing cultural impact, and reviewing editorial insight to determine which five songs defined summer 2026. Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” made the cut — unsurprising, considering it just broke the record for longest running non-holiday song to top the Billboard Hot 100 — as well as “Rein Me In” by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean, which broke a similar record in the UK.
“Dai Dai,” Shakira and Burna Boy’s anthem for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was also represented, as was Yung Miami’s addictive chart-gainer “Spend Dat.” But there was one song that reigned supreme, and that was “hate that i made you love me” by Ariana Grande. According to Spotify, “love me” was the most-streamed song of the summer, spending 89 days in Spotify’s Global Top 10 this summer. (To put it into perspective, summer usually lasts around 93 days.)
TikTok also concluded its song-of-the-summer race earlier this week, and to be frank, the results were much bleaker. Only two of Spotify’s selections made it onto TikTok’s top 10, “Dai Dai” and “Spend Dat,” with songs like “Earrings” by Malcolm Todd, “Ghetto Love Story” BabyChiefDoit, “End of August” by Noah Kahan, “Self Aware” by Temper City, and “Dance…” by Slayyyter rounding out the bottom of the chart. NYLON has no comment on half of these songs, but we’re happy for Slayyyter.
As for TikTok’s top three SOTS picks, only one of them was released within the last decade: “Cinderella” by Mac Miller feat. Ty Dolla $ign. The 2016 track came in at no. 2, right above Lenny Kravitz’s “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” (from 1991, long before most TikTok users were even born), and below the 2010 classic, “The One That Got Away” by Katy Perry. This also happened last year, when eight of the top 10 selects were from previous years. We’re not ones to fearmonger, but if that’s not a sign that culture is on its way out, we don’t know what is.
Of all the songs represented, only two “hate that i made you love me” and “Choosin’ Texas” have held steady in the Billboard Hot 100 top 10. And if we had to pick between these two, objectively we’d have to give it to “Choosin’ Texas.” But in all honesty, we still maintain that the bottom of the charts is where it's at — song of the summer included. As far as we’re concerned, any SOTS 2026 round up that doesn’t include “Ain’t In LA,” “maggots for brains,” or “The Feeling” might as well be irrelevant.
