Ahhhh, Summer. That most infectious, sweat-inducing time of year. With our calendars officially rolling over to July, one persistent question hangs in the air of the music world – what is the Song of the Summer for 2025?

Before we begin to shop this year’s options, it’s prudent we look back at 2024 – a year whose catalog of potential candidates across all genres boasted some of the most infectious earworms, summer or otherwise. Any of the Charli XCX tracks (or the veritable buffet of remixes) that accompanied a career-defining Brat Summer could have found itself as a suitable contestant. A pop innovator whose biggest mainstream explosion came several years (and records) into her discography is a watershed moment of celebration, and the sleazy filth of it all had been colored all the more romantic (and in an iconic shade of green, no less) with how emphatically it had been embraced by pop lovers the world over.

Then, of course, we have K.Dot. Kendrick Lamar spearheaded the most hater-energy-infused rap beef of the 21st Century when Aubrey “Drake” Graham started stirring the pot in retaliation to Dot’s assertion that “There’s no Big Three, there’s just Big Me.” What followed was a truly insane series of back-and-forths dropping diss tracks in broad daylight that commanded the attention of all with ears to listen. After several scathing rebuttals from Lamar, he torched the discourse altogether by leaning into his braggadocio to make a banger the likes of which ended the conflict instantaneously. “Not Like Us” had the entire planet cranking their volumes up to 11 and belting out the lyrics, to the point where school choirs began to offer their own elementary school renditions (when you have every child on the planet on your side, you’ve got a song that more than qualifies as a defining track of the summer, if not the year).

And yet, these two examples of peak 2024 music fare still pale in comparison to the epitome of sun-soaked fun in the way that Sabrina Carpenter‘s “Espresso” manages to be. While many more songs could be in the running for 2024’s Song of the Summer, all potential candidates are drowned out by the irresistible, syrupy-sweet melody of a pop star serving up a track that will spell her meteoric rise to fame. With catchy verses, an utterly magnetic hook, and memorable lines (“I’m working late/ ’cause I’m a singerrrr“), “Espresso” bears the blueprint of a late ’90s pop hit whose music video would have dominated TRL for weeks without fail. The ubiquitous success of the track underlines a few key points about the criteria needed for reaching the lofty status of Song of the Summer: first, it has to be undeniable. To quote The Sopranos, “A hit is a hit.” There has to be an unquestionable star quality to a summer frontrunner that can not be imitated. You simply know it when you hear it. You’ll know every word. And it’ll have you singing along every time you hear it.

Furthermore, the Song of the Summer needs to be pervasive; whether it be over the PA at the grocery store, on a passerby boombox, or at the beach, the song needs an unassailable omnipresence. It is the soundtrack of the season at hand, mind you. When polling online for answers as to what track could possibly define the 2025 summer season, I received a handful of responses that were simply too niche to be considered; when it comes to the appeal of such a song, it needs to be mainstream. You can’t satisfy the conditions for being the singular embodiment of the sound of the summer if only a handful of people know it by ear. Lastly, the DNA of such a lofty achievement is one of natural selection. The Song of the Summer must arise organically; despite the best efforts of studio executives trying to manufacture a hit that can easily slot into this year’s top honors, it is the general public who ultimately makes the call.

So where does this leave us in 2025?

Many Songs of the Summer have naturally emerged in the months leading up to calendar summer, and as it stands at the time of writing, the short list of contenders lacks the oomph and immediacy of last year’s candidates (and I only dedicated time to running down just the top three, all before mentioning the likes of Chappell Roan, Clairo, Tinashe, Tommy Richman, Shaboozey, and more). And while the likes of Addison Rae‘s “Headphones On” has helped solidify her pop career (despite many of her loudest critics haranguing her music for not carving out a singularly unique identity the likes of which many contemporary pop girlies such as Charli, Sabrina, Olivia, and more have done), the track still wears the perfume of a concerted effort to assembly line produce an earworm, i.e. I can’t say I feel its success comes off as purely organic.

Fans were wondering if Sabrina Carpenter would manage a repeat of her acclaim with the release of latest single, “Manchild,” and though it still bears all the markers of classic Carpenter fare…it lacks the undeniability of platinum-charting “Espresso.” There are those who suggest Alex Warren‘s religiously-inclined “Ordinary” should bear the crown, though in full honesty, the process of writing this article is the first I’ve heard of both the artist and the song (despite it somehow charting No.1 on the Billboard Top 100), so I feel as though that’s grounds for immediate disqualification (again, the Song of the Summer necessarily needs to be pleasantly inescapable, and this one exceeded my grasp).

Gun to my head, were I to be forced to come up on the spot with a worthy candidate for the position, the best I could muster that satisfies the four aforementioned conditions would be none other than Lorde‘s “What Was That?” – the explosive, danceable lead single for her latest record, Virgin.  Introduced impromptu to a massive crowd at Washington Square Park (initially shut down by police), and reprised to a sold out crowd at the lyrically-referenced Baby’s All Right, it bears the hallmarks of a season-defining track. However, there does seem to be less staying power than previously-earned Songs of The Summer. Is it possible that a season could go by without a definitive, uncontested owner of the title? Or in a rare instance of pop cultural delay, could it be possible that the Song of The Summer is still on its way?