Every year, the bounty of pop music grows more and more (my apologies to the 2,637 songs in my inbox as of time of writing that I haven’t gotten to yet, out of you don’t want to know how many). Singling out the top 40 pop thrills of the year only gets harder; maybe that’s why the actual Top 40 doesn’t even bother to be comprehensive.
The job must be done, though, no matter how impossible, so here are my 40 favorite pop songs of the year. As always, “pop” is interpreted broadly, encompassing monocultural icons and rising stars, the hits on the charts as well as the hits in my heart (or, often, both). You’ll see some long-memorized favorites here, but hopefully you’ll discover something new to love too.
Below, peruse the list, and find it in playlist form at the bottom.
40
Alas, JADE’s That’s Showbiz Baby doesn’t have anything with the world-conquering bravura of “Angel Of My Dreams,” the champion of last year’s list; that’s the pop biz, baby. “FUFN” matches it in clarity of purpose: Instead of being utterly determined to obliterate Simon Cowell, JADE is utterly determined to bring back Lady Gaga’s The Fame. It’s a worthy mission.
39
Flaunting a Sade sample is the riskiest of gambles; you absolutely must not miss. Rema doesn’t.
38
Honduran-Canadian artist Isabella Lovestory has shown impressive range during her breakout year: note-perfect 3LW-style R&B (“Gorgeous”), bombastic reggaeton (“Telenovela”), and this cut of glam electropop that she already executes like a seasoned pro.
37
Even with the combined artillery of Kendrick plus SZA plus the Super Bowl, I wouldn’t have expected “luther” to become as huge a hit as it did. In retrospect, I’m not sure why. The production is immaculate — the string frisson and the twinkling chimes are two highlights among many. Lamar and SZA have a sleepy chemistry; they practically merge into one another.
36
Amid all of the Discourse, a quiet triumph. Swift takes a premise that could be in very poor taste — using a friend’s funeral to say that she secretly always wanted him and should have convinced him to cheat — and makes it genuinely moving, a balm to her teenage self and everyone who sees themselves in her. Not that there aren’t singular Taylor-isms here; she might be the only person in history to score a wistful moment with a 50 Cent song.
35
Cloud-rapper fakemink, who released more tracks last year than are on this entire list, gets one to land. On “Easter Pink,” he pushes through Suzy Sheer’s wall of electro sludge for 1 minute and 25 seconds, and somehow that is the exact right length.
34
Sometimes the appeal of a track is simple. It really is all about that sample; there’s a reason people (including me, apologies) thought it was Pharrell.
33
Hearing this rising Spanish star was like hearing RosalÃa for the first time. The bridge — a call-and-response between traditional vocals and bassy breakdowns — is among the most exhilarating musical moments of the year.
32
Your favorite pop star’s favorite producer — not on this list, but hypothetically hovering in the low 40s, is his critical re-rehabilitation of Justin Bieber — shows in one Princely track why that’s the case. Seldom predictable and never sparse, “Yamaha” is like a Where’s Waldo spread packed with the past several decades of prime musical flourishes.
31
What the saxophone riff was to 2014, the heavy panting sample is to 2025: a little microtrend meant to imply, well, sex on the beat. Dream Academy alum Adéla turns that subtext into text, and then turns the sample into slinky electropop bliss.
30
Stretching the definition of pop about as far as it can go: That’s brat.
29
The most exciting thing Twenty One Pilots have ever done: a paranoid freakout of breakbeats, strobed vocals, and blown-out emo wailing, overloading the amygdala all at once.
28
“The Prince’s Progress” as Motown revival. Producer Mike Sabath isn’t doing Mark Ronson (thankfully) so much as he’s doing the early-2000s American R&B version of soul revival; “Crazy In Love,” “Ain’t No Other Man,” and “1 Thing” are all in the mix. (Note that those are all bangers.) And RAYE deftly commands the subtext. There’s a frantic desperation to her vocals that confirms this is the same artist who did the harrowing “Genesis” and “Escapism.” But this time, instead of publicly displaying her pain, here she sublimates it into a vaudeville bit: Dear future husband, could you please just sow your oats a little faster, you little scamp, then get home to me pronto so I can make it worth your while? I also like how the little grandma soundbite is supposed to convey utter been-there-done-that exhaustion, but sounds like a robo-adlib from a will.i.am song.
27
Peak self-aware comedy. Over a solid dark-dance beat, BLACKPINK’s JENNIE devotes a solid double-digit percentage of this track to repeating her name (JENNIE), in a wild ploy to ascend into the pantheon of Madonna or Kylie (and also JENNIE) by sheer semantic satiation. It shouldn’t work at all (for JENNIE), but somehow, it does. She (JENNIE) outright says “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus”; she knows what she’s doing. JENNIE.
26
Who could have predicted that a show with about a high-school talent incubator would simultaneously be incubating IRL talent? Thomas took much more time to develop as a musician than his Victorious co-stars Ariana Grande and Victoria Justice, with some solid Babyface mentorship. And he got an easy confidence and a Frank Ocean flow out of it, so what’s the rush?
25
It may be too early to say, but if “The Subway” is the heart of Chappell Roan’s upcoming album, “The Giver” is the glorious id. It’s a celebration of twang and topping, a party invitation to everyone but the bland bros of country music, and the logical follow-up to her “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” takedown of men: You can’t come, and you can’t make anyone. Someone has to carry forth the mission of Shania Twain; only Roan can get the job done.
24
We’ve had a few months for the dust to settle on whether this song is gnarly (complimentary) or gnarly (derogatory). It’s the former. An ironically manufactured track by Alice Longyu Gao makes its way via unclear deals to an unironically manufactured girl group, and somehow the irony survives the transfer process and parses as internet brainrot. (Representative YouTube comment by @SophiaKatseye-g5l: “WHEN DANI PULLED OUT THE KNIFE IT SOUNDED LITERALLY LIKE PULLING OUT THE ROBLOX KNIFE”). What a gnarly world this is, where this is even an option.
23
The more time passes, the more this seems like a strong contender for a generational anthem. Probable spoilers: It’s going to seem even more like one after the Super Bowl.
22
Close enough: Welcome back, Icona Pop.
21
“Manchild” is a pleasant enough Dolly ditty, but as a genre, it doesn’t quite play to Sabrina’s strengths. “When Did You Get Hot?” is much better: the slinkiness of “Tears” transplanted onto the kind of trip-hop-n-B beat that Janet might have pounced upon in her Velvet Rope era. Carpenter is as lascivious as she’s ever been, once again showing off the wordplay equivalent of the cherry-stem tongue trick. You’ve got to admire the absolute laser-guided-missile horniness it takes to call a party a “prospect convention.”
20
There’ve been several attempts in the past few years to recreate the kind of mid-2000s pop-rock that you’d find on a Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen or Mean Girls soundtrack. Totally unsurprising that the one who pulled it off best is Regina George herself.
19
Gnarlier than “Gnarly,” this is hyperstimulation for the chronically hyperstimulated. I’m slightly terrified of the world where everything sounds like this, but I also need to go there.
18
What made this grow on me so much? Getting some time away from the discourse? Having to take sombr’s side in the dumbest feud of 2025? Realizing that the funk track I was originally iffy about is actually pretty robust? Admitting that sombr has presence, and that I can no longer honestly deny that?
17
Kaytranada does it again: a plush beat for Rochelle Jordan to inhabit with cool confidence and perfectly gossamer vocals.
16
The least surprising team-up of the year produces a pleasant surprise anyway. Caroline Polachek has honed the art of careful vocal control: restrained bordering on detached virtuosity. So her letting loose with full-on euphoric belting on this trance track is quite a curve — but one that works shockingly well. Harle’s involvement is less surprising; you know he loves the stuff. As do I.
15
I want sleaze in my sleaze, dammit. Title aside, this probably isn’t actually a Britney homage — at least I doubt either of them would admit if it were — but it functions surprisingly well as one. “I Like The Way You Kiss Me” charted high enough to justify a Lady Gaga collab, right? Someone get that on Vincent Herbert’s desk.
14
This one actually is a Britney homage, and just as sleazy. (In a good way.)
13
Parris Goebel is enough of a multi-hyphenate that she’ll be appearing on this list again as a choreographer. She already carries herself like a star: introducing herself with an Eartha Kitt cackle and exuding quiet fury over a reggaeton beat. You feel her presence even when she isn’t speaking.
12
If fame is a gun, Addison Rae’s fame is a ghost gun: prefab, free of identifying markers, and an object of constant discourse for being as effective as the authentic thing. This makes it very hard to hear Addison on its own terms. The sexual awakening of “Diet Pepsi” or the muted teen angst of “Headphones On” never quite escape the immersion-breaking suspicion that they’re merely fake-real. But the effect works in the other direction too. On “Fame Is A Gun,” Rae — who was a normie Southern girl before she was an influencer — cosplays Britney, who shed her normie-Southern-girl image long ago, or Paris Hilton, who was an heiress from the start. Even as she boasts about guns and drugs and being too unattainable for you, there’s an unassumingness, even mousiness, to her voice, and a sense that it’s all just dress-up at the end of the day. The effect is like a musical Club Libby Lu party, and it works perfectly. Behind the boards, meanwhile, Addison is moodboarding and interior-designing Elvira and Luka Kloser’s musical chillout rooms — and what immaculate rooms they are. “Fame Is A Gun” sounds more like its peers in pop than the rest of Addison (specifically, it sounds kind of like Brat), yet still sounds improbably singular.
11
A gem from a duo coming off a TikTok hit (and also, disclosure, a stint writing about music for some places I have also written; I swear I didn’t know that until like three days ago), “Temporary Lover” is a rush of emoting and beats that feels simultaneously like a PlayStation soundtrack and like the biggest crush of your life.
10
After what felt like eons of stomp-clap megachurch-music stagnation, “Golden” was invigorating: a monocultural smash that actually feels monocultural. If you conquer the world in the movies, you conquer the world in real life.
9
The best and most visceral electropop track of the year. The tension and buildup of this K-pop track, strobing vocals against steely dance, would be perfect even without the total flashbang of an interpolation that shows up.
8
Doechii’s tremendous “Denial Is A River” missed this list on a release-date technicality, so huge thanks to Fred again.. for ensuring she makes an appearance here. (Now all you need to do is credit her; fuck’s sake man.) Skepta and PlaqueBoyMax, impressively, match her energy, and Fred frames them properly with a “why do I hear boss music” type beat.
7
If Mayhem sometimes feels like a Gaga nostalgia tour — which, to be fair, it is — “Abracadabra” singlehandedly justifies the endeavor. The song showcases everything great about her: her enormous alto amid tiny sopranos, her actually dark dance amid hundreds of vaguely minor-key pretenders (and this one has acid synths), her utter determination to tell unrelatable stories that still bang, her using the word “gaga” as punctuation, and her high-concept videography with actual choreo (Parris does it again!). Few others have this gravitas.
6
The pop version of Kate Bush’s “Get Out Of My House” — oh yes, we’re talking that level of ambition. From the venom in the vocals to the ABBA-esque lightning-crash of a hook to the disco strings, Sigrid is doing everything and landing everything, too.
5
The other best and most visceral electro track of 2025 — it’s been a strong, strong year. The wobbling synths on “Talk” remind me of Katy B’s “Katy On A Mission,” and Grant is also on a mission: “I’m not worried bout the boys on your body — I’ma turn ’em all to just talk.” Honestly, believable.
4
Hearing “SUPER F★CKING MEGA ST★R” (caps and stars mandatory) for the first time, I immediately thought “oh this artist could become big big.” It’s also the clearest evidence to date that Chappell Roan is a generational influence — those Dolores O’Riordian ad-libs in the outro all but prove that MARIS too is a super fucking mega stan. Oh, and the most monstrously huge hook of the year, and it’s not even close.
3
About five or six EUSEXUA tracks could have made this list, on a different day in a different mood — and few albums this year were better at conjuring moods. “Girl Feels Good” is maybe an even better mission statement than “eusexua” for twigs: a girl, a feeling, and nothing else in the world. And producer Koreless catches her wavelength like few of her other producers have, allowing her to sink luxuriously into Ray Of Light — a better feeling than most things in life.
2
PinkPantheress, having quietly reshaped the sound of pop, has found another niche with her Fancy That singles: embodying the other side of every Weeknd song. (The Weeknd would be in the low 40s here.) On “Illegal,” Pink takes “Nice To Meet You” — she more or less quotes the title — and inverts it: Where once the least wholesome thing was a Central Cee verse reminding everyone he had a cheating scandal, here you struggle to find any wholesome thing. It’s no coincidence that “Illegal” samples Underworld, a group best known for being on the Trainspotting soundtrack. Everything is bleary and blurry, including the very scenario: Is this meeting a drug dealer as a metaphor for having a crush, having a crush as a metaphor for meeting a drug dealer, both at once? The tempo feels just faster than it should; the Barbie-esque chirps are winsome but also ever-so-off. The outro is perfect, too: more heavy breathing that’s supposed (I think) to simulate a panic attack, but also sounds like a sigh and a tryst and something you’ll look back upon as the best-worst night of your life.
1
It made the main list, it tops this one. Heed the call, feel the lust, admire the ambition, and start to dance.
