Summer is here in the northern hemisphere and for many people there is pleasure to be taken from putting together a playlist to push the summer vibe. Whether this is for listening on the car stereo or keeping your tunes to yourself in your headphones, handpicking the perfect playlist is a popular pastime.
For those who would rather draw on the curated content put together by others, there is no shortage of inspiration, including thousands of public Spotify playlists to inspire your summer selections.
There are different criteria that can be used to compile a playlist, including:
- Popularity.
- Happiness (based on the user ratings for positive mood).
- Danceability (danceability as assessed by users).
- Energy.
- Acousticness.
- Instrumentalness.
- Liveness (in relation to live recordings).
- Speechiness (as per the level of spoken word).
To assess which artists are currently the most popular, Royal Westmoreland, provider of luxurious villas in Barbados, has provided Digital Journal with some insights. The company has crunched the numbers to find out the ultimate summer playlist songs and popular artists.
How many playlists are there out there?
There are 971 public Spotify playlists which match the search term “summer holiday”. Within those playlists, there are 191,810 tracks – an average of 198 tracks per playlist.
In the context of this variety, which tracks top the list as the world’s favourite going into this year’s summer vacation?
Top 20 playlist songs
| Rank | Artist | Song Title | Spotify Streams | Playlist Entries |
| 1 | Calvin Harris | Summer | 1,512,404,796 | 164 |
| 2 | Calvin Harris | Feel So Close – Radio Edit | 1,004,554,369 | 123 |
| 3 | Mr. Probz | Waves – Robin Schulz Radio Edit | 1,003,440,710 | 96 |
| 4 | Drake | One Dance | 3,209,502,520 | 94 |
| 5 | Calvin Harris | One Kiss (with Dua Lipa) | 2,190,633,456 | 87 |
| 6 | Pitbull | Give Me Everything (feat. Nayer) | 1,180,778,636 | 85 |
| 7 | Sabrina Carpenter | Espresso | 669,941,032 | 84 |
| 8 | Pitbull | Time of Our Lives | 1,296,891,994 | 83 |
| 9 | Declan McKenna | Brazil | 587,416,117 | 83 |
| 10 | Duke Dumont | I Got U | 368,410,333 | 82 |
| 11 | Nico & Vinz | Am I Wrong | 970,047,678 | 82 |
| 12 | LF SYSTEM | Afraid To Feel | 362,408,477 | 78 |
| 13 | Peggy Gou | (It Goes Like) Nanana – Edit | 468,810,409 | 77 |
| 14 | Bob Marley & The Wailers | Could You Be Loved | 934,540,235 | 75 |
| 15 | French Montana | Unforgettable | 2,083,698,861 | 74 |
| 16 | OMI | Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix) – Radio Edit | 1,674,399,303 | 72 |
| 17 | cassö | Prada | 628,022,924 | 71 |
| 18 | Calvin Harris | How Deep Is Your Love | 1,167,176,817 | 70 |
| 19 | Flo Rida | Club Can’t Handle Me (feat. David Guetta) | 567,751,559 | 70 |
| 20 | Vance Joy | Riptide | 2,569,517,133 | 69 |
Data correct as of 26th June 2024.
Who’s the ultimate summer artist?
When it comes to the most popular artist to soundtrack the summer, the winner is Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, who leads the way, taking the crown for first place as well as accounting for three of the top five and four of the top 20 overall.
“Summer”, from his 2014 album Motion, is the most popular summer holiday song on Spotify. With over 1.5 billion streams, this track stands highest; however, in terms of plays alone, it languishes behind Drake’s 2016 megahit “One Dance,” which boasts well beyond 3 billion streams.
Overall, Harris’ “Summer” appears in 17 percent of all playlists featuring under the search term “summer holiday”.
