Spotify has put an early marker on the season with Spotify’s 2026 Songs of Summer predictions, a 30-track list chosen by its editorial team as potential warm-weather fixtures. The contenders include Drake, Zara Larsson, Ella Langley, Kacey Musgraves and a wide spread of pop, country, dance and global artists, because apparently even summer now requires advance forecasting.
The streaming platform is also giving listeners a more direct role this year. Alongside the editorial picks, Spotify is introducing in-app voting on its Songs of Summer playlist, with a vote button placed at the top so users can cast their choice.
Which artists made Spotify’s summer shortlist?
Among the bigger names on the list are Drake with “Janice STFU,” Zara Larsson with “Midnight Sun,” Ella Langley with “Choosin’ Texas” and Kacey Musgraves with “Mexico Honey.” Ariana Grande is also included with “hate that I made you love me,” while Olivia Rodrigo appears with “drop dead.”
The lineup is not just a parade of familiar chart names. Spotify’s editors also selected tracks from artists including DopeNation, F3miii, Mauvais djo, Temper City, STELLA LEFTY and Cameron Whitcomb. That mix is the point: the list is less about declaring one obvious winner now and more about mapping the songs that could soundtrack playlists, car rides, beach speakers and group chats over the next few months.
Spotify grouped the songs into four loose categories, each pointing to a different mood the platform expects to shape listening habits this summer:
- Nostalgic club anthems, including Bebe Rexha and Faithless’ “New Religion” and Slayyyter’s “DANCE…”
- Sadboy summer, including Dominic Fike’s “Babydoll” and Malcolm Todd’s “Earrings”
- Global dance hits, including DopeNation’s “Kakalika”
- Postcard country, including STELLA LEFTY’s “Boston” and Cameron Whitcomb’s “Kingdom of Fear”
How the new Spotify voting feature works
This year’s change is voting inside the Spotify app. The company is putting a vote button at the top of the Songs of Summer playlist, so listeners can pick the track they think deserves the seasonal crown.
That gives the campaign a slightly more interactive feel than the usual editorial playlist rollout. Spotify’s team still made the initial picks, but users now have a built-in way to show which songs are actually catching on beyond industry expectation.
For artists, that matters. A “song of the summer” label can give a track a real lift, not just as a streaming badge but as shorthand for a song that has moved from playlist placement into everyday life. The voting feature turns that process into something more visible, and very neatly keeps people inside the app while they do it. Convenient, as business plans tend to be.
What happened with last year’s Songs of Summer?
Spotify’s 2025 Songs of Summer selections included Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild,” Sombr’s “Back to Friends” and “Shake It to the Max (Fly) - Remix” by Moliy, Silent Addy, Skillibeng and Shenseea.
The company also offered an interesting read on the mood of last summer. According to Spotify, summer 2025 was the “least danceable and lowest-energy summer for music in the past decade,” based on “tempos, rhythm stability, beat strength, and overall regularity of the season’s top tracks.”
That context helps explain why the 2026 list feels deliberately broad. There are dance tracks, country-leaning songs, pop names and moodier cuts, suggesting Spotify is not betting on one single summer sound. It is covering several possible weather systems at once.
Full Spotify 2026 Songs of Summer predictions list
- “Talk to You” by ANOTR, 54 Ultra
- “CHÉVERE (premium_remix)” by ARIA VEGA, Ryan Castro
- “hate that I made you love me” by Ariana Grande
- “New Religion” by Bebe Rexha, Faithless
- “Kingdom of Fear” by Cameron Whitcomb
- “Bangaranga” by DARA
- “Raindance (feat. Tems)” by Dave, Tems
- “Freakin’ Out” by Dexter and the Moonrocks
- “Babydoll” by Dominic Fike
- “E85” by Don Toliver
- “Kakalika” by DopeNation
- “Janice STFU” by Drake
- “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley
- “NOBLE” by F3miii
- “L.U.C.K.Y” by Fcukers
- “Jamaican (Bam Bam)” by HUGEL, SOLTO (FR)
- “Mexico Honey” by Kacey Musgraves
- “Earrings” by Malcolm Todd
- “Maladie” by Mauvais djo
- “Doors” by Noah Kahan
- “drop dead” by Olivia Rodrigo
- “KOKO” by Omar Courtz
- “Girl Like Me” by PinkPantheress
- “Free Your Mind” by Prospa, Cloonee
- “Rein Me In (with Olivia Dean)” by Sam Fender, Olivia Dean
- “DANCE…” by Slayyyter
- “Boston” by STELLA LEFTY
- “Dracula - JENNIE Remix” by Tame Impala, JENNIE
- “Self Aware” by Temper City
- “Midnight Sun” by Zara Larsson
