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Songs of the Summer: The 2010s Playlist

With the return of Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart for 2020, we’re feeling a bit nostalgic for the warm-weather music of decades past. Every other week on Thursday, we’ll be revisiting a past decade to see which tunes ruled the chart.


The Songs of the Summer chart had a lot of names at the top in the 2010s, as artists got together to create some seriously catchy music for the warmer months. Out of the 10 tunes that nabbed the title of Song of the Summer last decade, seven had featured artists.

Among them was Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX‘s 2014 hit “Fancy,” which we at Billboard also included as one of our 100 songs that defined the decade. Another Song of the Summer that helped define the decade was Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee‘s 2017 tune “Despacito,” which also happened to feature a pop megastar by the name of Justin Bieber on the remix.

But who can forget what may have been the most popular Song of the Summer of the decade, when Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus rode to the top of the chart — and stayed there for a record 19 weeks — with “Old Town Road” in 2019? The megahit was No. 1 the first week of the Songs of the Summer chart that year, and didn’t let up for the whole 14 weeks, when the chart wrapped up the week of Sept. 7.

Below, see which other songs became Billboard‘s Songs of the Summer in the 2010s, then get your groove to them again in the playlist. And don’t forget to vote in our poll to tell us which Song of the Summer from the decade was your favorite.

  • 2010: “California Gurls,” Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
  • 2011: “Party Rock Anthem,” LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock
  • 2012: “Call Me Maybe,” Carly Rae Jepsen
  • 2013: “Blurred Lines,” Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell Williams
  • 2014: “Fancy,” Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX
  • 2015: “Cheerleader,” OMI
  • 2016: “One Dance,” Drake feat. Wizkid and Kyla
  • 2017: “Despacito,” Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber
  • 2018: “In My Feelings,” Drake
  • 2019: “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus

 

Want more? See the top 10 tunes that ranked in our Songs of the Summer chart each year from 1958 to 2019 here.

These hot tunes are ranked based on each track’s performance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the summer. For the period of 1991 and before, prior to the advent of Nielsen Music radio monitoring and point-of-sales data, the rankings are based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. For the years corresponding with Nielsen Music data, 1992 onward, the rankings are based on accumulated radio and sales points, and points from other data sets that were included in the Hot 100 during those respective years.