From Drake to Justin Bieber to Ed Sheeran: the 21st century’s best (and worst) Billboard songs of the summer
- Every summer seems to have its own theme tune, the one that gets stuck in everyone’s head
- Rihanna, Katy Perry and Robin Thicke are all on Billboard’s Top 20 list, but who’s at the top?
It happens every summer: one song, among an infinite number of contenders, rises up to define the season, and is heard over and over and over at pool parties and barbecues on the beach.
But what turns a simple pop jam into “song of the summer”? History tells us the tune can zip (think Call Me Maybe) or swagger (We Belong Together). It can be comedic (California Gurls) or sentimental (In My Feelings).
Beyond those specifics, though, what it must be is inescapable. With the competition now open for 2019’s champion, allow us to present the definitive summer songs of the 21st century so far.
We used Billboard’s statistics to determine each song of the summer since 2000 – and threw in Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber’s new duet as a top candidate for 2019. We then pitted all 20 against each other to find out which summer songs of the millennium were true classics and which mere seasonal flings. The results below are listed in order of preference – from our favourite summer song of the 21st century to our least favourite (sorry, Matchbox Twenty).
1. Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z, Crazy in Love (2003)
The lead cut from Beyoncé’s debut solo album still ranks among her most delirious soul-funk jams, thanks to those percolating drums, a ripping brass sample – and, of course, Beyoncé herself, whose live wire vocal makes it easy to believe her when she insists, “You got me sprung and I don’t care who sees.” Jay-Z probably never felt luckier.