Taylor Swift sits at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘The Fate of Ophelia.’ The song spent 10 weeks at #1, making it the Swift single with the longest stint in the top spot.
At #12 is the second single from Bruno Mars’ album The Romantic, and the record’s first track. ‘Risk it All’ entered the chart at #4 before dropping out of the top ten a week later. It hasn’t had the staying power of ‘I Just Might,’ which has spent more than three months in the top five.
At #2 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 is Olivia Dean’s ‘Man I Need,’ which I first wrote about back in November when it was at #5. Talk about staying power. Dean’s track has been in the Hot 100 for 34 weeks now, and has spent much of this year in the top five, but it has so far peaked at #2.
At #3 is Bruno Mars’ ‘I Just Might,’ which spent three weeks at #1 after debuting there in early January. The lead single from Mars’ latest album The Romantic, this is his first track to debut at #1.
I like to start each new year by featuring the most popular songs of the previous year that I never got around to covering — a final round of ‘What the Kids are Listening To.’ And though 2026 doesn’t get here until Thursday, I’m kicking things off today.
First, a recap of the eight most popular songs of 2025 (according to the Billboard Hot 100), all of which did receive the Song of the Day treatment:
At #2 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 is ‘Die with a Smile,’ the collab between Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.
The song was released in August of 2024 and kicked around the top ten for months until finally reaching #1 in January of this year. It has been kept alive on the charts by the release of multiple alternate versions, a Grammy win, and inclusion on Gaga’s latest album, Mayhem.
I’m developing a theory that the Hot 100 over the last two decades has been a lot more stagnant than in previous years. In other words, fewer songs are spending a longer amount of time in the upper echelons of the chart.
I’m basing this admittedly half-baked idea on the fact that the 2013 edition of Throwback Thursdays has produced the most repeats by far. Just take a look at the chart on the week of July 27, 2013.
Meet Me In Montauk 