May 18, 2026 marks the six year anniversary of Liveline. That was the summer we launched on five stations, the first being WHYA (Y101) Cape Cod, Mass., owned by John Garabedian at the time (though it was Y101 program director Steve McVie who pushed for me to do the show). The entire music industry saw a dramatic shift that year because of the pandemic. In 2020 COVID affected all our lives, radio listening was down, TikTok was just emerging as the hottest thing and streaming charts were miles apart from what stations were actually playing.
Nonetheless, a hit is a hit and there are many songs from each year since Liveline’s 2020 inception which are still huge, despite heavy burn and songs receiving more spins than ever because back then there wasn’t a lot of great stuff to pick from and people just weren’t listening long enough. In early 2021, 24k Golden’s “Mood” broke the record for most spins in a single week, around 21,000. Today, the #1 spin on Top 40 is “So Easy (To Fall In Love)” by Olivia Dean with about 16,700 spins. That’s still much higher than the average 14,000 spins which a #1 song would’ve had around 2012. Here’s a look back at the show’s five summers.
2020: The Song of Summer that year was also the Song of the Year and has since become the most-streamed in Spotify history. Released a week after “Heartless”, The Weeknd’s team originally planned “Blinding Lights” to be the Top 40 single and “Heartless” for Rhythmic. Six years later, “Blinding Lights” still gets requests and it is fair to call it one of our most requested songs of all time. Ironically, the next time they tried that formula, it was the Rhythmic single, “Timeless,” that comes in and out of our top 20 requests and is one of our biggest songs ever. Not “Dancing in the Flames,” which ultimately didn’t even make the album it was intended for.
2021: How lucky we were to have Dua Lipa in a time of so much weak music and no real pop stars. I often credit her with saving Top 40 when “Levitating” came out, even though it originally peaked at No. 8, but saw a streaming resurgence several months later. It rebounded to #1 and stayed there for three weeks, later crowned as the most-played song of the year on Top 40. That was a truly amazing summer for pop music, with “STAY” by The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber holding the #1 spot for 13 weeks, and other great songs like “Kiss Me More”, “INDUSTRY BABY”, “good 4 u”, “Peaches” and “Save Your Tears”. It gave us lots of hope after the doldrums of 2018-2020. We still get many requests for “Levitating”, but even more for the KUU Remix, which over the years has become a staple on Liveline and something people truly love.
2022: Another year of solid hits, though many of the number-ones that year have not aged well at all. Those include “Vegas” by Doja Cat, “abcdefu” by Gayle, “Big Energy” by Latto, “Enemy” by Imagine Dragons, “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy and even “Late Night Talking” by Harry Styles which have been nearly forgotten and never get any requests at all. Still, Harry Styles was on a roll with two chart-toppers under his belt “Adore You” and “Watermelon Sugar” which many also consider the “song of summer 2020.” His much-anticipated return with the album “Harry’s House” gave us “As It Was” as the lead single. Other summer anthems “About Damn Time” by Lizzo and “Sunroof” by Nicky Youre followed-up at #1 and actually still get requests today, but “As It Was” was ultimately the definitive song of that summer and the year, as determined by Billboard, Mediabase and our Liveline requests!
2023: “Cruel Summer” was the song of that summer and actually came out in 2019 but wasn’t a single. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was kicking off and became the biggest thing in the world. I remember the Patrick Davis-led KHKS/Dallas being a heavy supporter of the song before anyone else in 2020 and 2021, which Liveline followed. It was so undeniable and completely topical with the pandemic still unsettling our lives. It wasn’t until 2023 until Cruel Summer got the accolades it so rightfully deserved, leading to Republic Records to push it as an official single. It has since become her most-streamed song on Spotify, with 3.3 billion streams, surpassing 2014’s “Blank Space” which now “only” has 2.4 billion. Oddly enough, we don’t get requests for it anymore, but that might change with summer coming. We get many more requests for “Shake It Off”, “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me”.
2024: At the time, we credited 2024 with being the best year of music since the “golden era of pop” between 2008-2012. There were so many massive hits, new sounds and a great variety of songs that attracted a very broad audience to Pop radio and the ratings showed it. It’s still by far the best year of music since the start of Liveline and had everyone debating what the true song of the summer was. Even now, “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter seems like the obvious pick because of its impact and career-launching effect. Two country songs “I Had Some Help” and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” were played to death and both went #1. “Too Sweet” and “Beautiful Things” offered a slight Alternative edge and “we can’t be friends”, “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Saturn” provided the bubblegum girly pop sounds that you’d usually expect on the format – they were really broad-demo popular, people loved them, and still do! “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” came out in May 2024 and finally went #1 the week of September 28 where it stayed until November 16 (eight weeks) and is also still one of the best-testing, most-streamed, Top 20 most requested (on Liveline) and most-played songs on Top 40 today.
2025: A lot of people had a problem with “Ordinary” being the Song of Summer, because it doesn’t deliver a feeling of warm weather, fun and energy the way its competitors “Manchild” and “APT.” did. But it WAS the biggest song of the year by every measure, the most-streamed, most-played (on Top 40 and Hot AC) and is still one of the biggest in the world. It will live on for decades because of its deep, romantic emotional connection with so many people.
“Ordinary” is a great song and holds the record for most weeks at #1 in Top 40 history with 16, but at the time it really did not have a lot of competition. Very few songs could compete with how loved and popular it was on streaming, though “Manchild” (only #1 for one week on Top 40) was basically the continuation of “Espresso”, “Please Please Please”, “Bed Chem” and “Taste.” Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan is still one of our most requested songs and even though it reached #1, it took radio a very long time to get it there after months of streaming success, her massive fan base, huge requests, and our championing it for weeks in this column.
What’s Happening for Summer, 2026?: Statistically, this summer’s biggest song is already out. April or May is usually the sweet spot, and we’ve got a few that could very well hold on until July, which is all it takes. “Drop Dead” by Olivia Rodrigo is currently #1 on Spotify in America and she has a whole album coming on June 12. It has energy and has really grown on people despite disappointing some upon release, as they were expecting a ballad or something more raw. Her likely-next single “begged” which has yet to be released was performed on SNL over the weekend, though it’s a slow song.
Ariana Grande’s album “petal” comes out July 31, but that seems a little too late and she stated it would be more laid back and emotional, which never fares well for a summer song. Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” is still a smash and #1 in a dozen countries, though oddly Pop radio is still underplaying it. Her new album “Dandelion” (released April 10) is doing phenomenally well. “Babydoll” by Dominic Fike came out in 2018, but that’s never stopped anyone before. Many songs of summer from recent years were “old” by the time they became hits.
To us, even though there are so many big songs right now, none of them stand out significantly enough to be considered a contender for Song of the Summer, though seeing “Beauty and a Beat” or “Billie Jean” back in the Top 10 streams is very telling for where music is going and what we hope to see more of in the future in terms of throwbacks, their role on Pop radio, and filling the void of dull, slow depressing songs. Bring back the over-produced, 128 BPM happy party songs!
