What a spring! We watched KATSEYE drop “PINKY UP” hours ahead of their Coachella debut, Dominic Fike announced an intimate run of headline dates ahead of his Tame Impala support slot this August, and Meg Stalter traded Hacks for a pop music moment with her debut single “Prettiest Girl in America.” Kat DeLuna stepped into a new Latin era with “Mala Mía,” Ryan Castro joined J Balvin on one of the biggest stages in the world at the FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremony in Mexico City, and Nettspend closed out June with Gucci, turning a SoHo storefront into a pop-up built around his album early life crisis. 

Ariana Grande kicked off her Petal era with a song that shot straight to No. 1, BTS came back from their long stretch with a title track that did the same, and Madonna pulled Sabrina Carpenter into her orbit for a surprise Coachella moment that turned into one of the summer’s biggest singles. In between, Charli xcx opened a new chapter with a song called “Rock Music” that isn’t rock music, La Roux and Icona Pop both came back after years away, and a wave of rising names — Daniela Lalita, Debbii Dawson, BKTHERULA, Cain Culto — kept pushing their own corners of the map forward. 

Here are the 25 songs that soundtracked my Q2.

1. Ariana Grande – “hate that i made you love me”

Ariana Grande returns with a self-assured lead single for her Petal era, and the hook says it all: “hate that I made you love me… because I barely tried.” It debuted at No. 1 on both the Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, keeping her streak alive ahead of her eighth studio album Petal, out July 31 via Babydoll Music and Republic Records. Stream here.

2. BTS – “Swim”

BTS returned with “Swim,” the title track from their fifth studio album ARIRANG, produced by Diplo, and it debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 — their sixth song to do it. The Tanu Muiño-directed video, filmed against the Lisbon coast and featuring Lili Reinhart, matches the song’s message about pushing forward on your own terms, even when the water gets rough. I first caught it during BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG, their Netflix special from Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square, and it hooked me immediately. It’s since become the first 2026 release to cross 500 million Spotify streams. Stream here.

3. Olivia Rodrigo – “the cure”

Olivia Rodrigo wrote “the cure” with longtime collaborator Dan Nigro, and it’s the second single from her third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. The pop-rock track sits with doubt and emotional isolation, and it topped the charts in Australia, Ireland, and Singapore while cracking the top ten nearly everywhere else. She debuted it live at BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge before bringing it to Jimmy Kimmel Live. Stream here.

4. Madonna, Sabrina Carpenter – “Bring Your Love”

Madonna DM’d Sabrina Carpenter directly to ask her onto this one, and the two first teased it live when Madonna showed up as a surprise guest during Carpenter’s Coachella Weekend 2 set. “Bring Your Love” is the lead single from Madonna’s fifteenth album Confessions II, written and produced by Madonna and Stuart Price with additional production from Italian duo Parisi. It’s a house and dance-pop track where both women shrug off the noise around their careers and public personas. Stream here.

5. Charli XCX – “Rock Music”

Charli XCX opens the post-Brat chapter with “Rock Music,” the lead single from her seventh album Music, Fashion, Film, written with A.G. Cook and Finn Keane. It’s barely two minutes long and leans hyperpop rather than guitar-driven — Charli’s pointed out that calling a song “Rock Music” isn’t the same as promising a rock album. The video finds her pushing a TV set onto the street before the whole thing breaks into a mosh pit. Stream here.

6. Kim Petras – “Need for Speed”

Kim Petras turns the industry machine on itself with “Need for Speed,” one of five singles from Detour — out now via Amigo and BunHead Records, her first independent album since parting ways with Republic. Co-produced with Frost Children and Nightfeelings alongside Zara Larsson collaborator Margo XS and co-written with Madison Love, Petras has said the song is about the constant push for more hits erasing your personality until being busy and fast is all that’s left. The Ashley Hood-directed video pushes the joke further — there’s a scene where she gambles away her Grammy. Stream here.

7. Conan Gray – “The Best”

Conan Gray closes out the deluxe edition of Wishbone with “The Best,” a song that had already been played live on the Wishbone World Tour before its official release. Opening on clean guitar, Gray works through what it actually feels like to try to move on from someone he still cares about — no bitterness, just the honest difficulty of it. The deluxe edition adds five songs to the original 12-track album. Stream here.

8. Dom Dolla, Tiga – “Don’t Worry Baby”

Dom Dolla and Tiga team up for the first time on “Don’t Worry Baby,” a shimmering, synth-driven track built around an escapist sci-fi narrative. “This is a record about hope,” Dom says, “hoping that aliens will one day come and rescue us from this disaster of a timeline.” Tiga frames it differently — “a record about confidence, love, lasers, and staying cool when everybody else is sweating” — and the tension between those two readings is exactly what makes it work. It arrives fresh off Dom’s stadium-headlining show in Sydney and Tiga’s surprise Coachella set behind his album HOTLIFE. Stream here.

9. Calvin Harris, Jazzy – “Satisfy”

Calvin Harris and Irish DJ Jazzy built “Satisfy” around soulful house piano, a deep groove, and high-gloss synths — the kind of warm, sun-drenched track Harris had been teasing for weeks, writing in April that “this summer is about to be historic.” Jazzy, who’s worked with Sonny Fodera, D.O.D, and Rossi, holds her own next to one of dance music’s biggest names. An extended mix followed two weeks after the original drop. Stream here.

10. MEDUZA, RANI – “Silence”

MEDUZA and RANI’s “Silence” is MEDUZA’s third single on Insomniac Records since 2021, and it’s built around a love too powerful to keep quiet. RANI’s vocal performance is the emotional center — commanding but restrained — wrapped in the kind of cinematic, club-ready sound MEDUZA is known for producing. Stream here.

11. La Roux – “Cabin Fever”

La Roux is back after six years with “Cabin Fever,” the ’90s-tinged lead single from her fourth album Old Flames, out this November. It’s about the standoff between wanting to leave the house and the spiral of thoughts that keeps you glued to the couch instead — self-imposed isolation, examined from the inside. “This record says things how they are,” Elly Jackson has said of the album, which pulls from the end of a 17-year relationship, addiction, sexuality, and public scrutiny. Stream here.

12. Lucy Dacus – “Planting Tomatoes”

Lucy Dacus wrote “Planting Tomatoes” while on tour in Berlin, and the Boygenius member’s first new music of 2026 sits with grief and aging by way of slowing down enough to actually notice your life happening. It first arrived as a Record Store Day exclusive 7″ before hitting streaming, and Dacus followed it with a self-directed music video shot entirely around her hometown of Richmond, Virginia — Dogwood Dell, Hollywood Cemetery, the James River Park Pony Pasture, with her own friends and family showing up in it. The rollout continues into a summer tour that includes her first-ever symphony date, backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Stream here.

13. Icona Pop – “Butterfly Feelings”

Icona Pop returns with “Butterfly Feelings,” lifted from their forthcoming album Ritual, out August 14 via Ultra Records and Iconic Sound Recordings. The duo pairs futuristic synths and a snappy pop melody with the euphoric vulnerability at the core of their music, this time telling the story of meeting someone you like and immediately trying to talk yourself out of it. Stream here.

14. Olivia O’Brien – “The Masochist”

Olivia O’Brien turns the knife on herself with “The Masochist,” the third single from her album OO2. It plays like a fiery, sarcastic middle finger to an ex before she flips it inward, admitting she has a type: “I like losers, I like supervillains, I like a**holes… call me the masochist.” O’Brien has always been a great songwriter, and she delivers once again on this track. Stream here.

15. Meghan Trainor – “Just Wanna Cry”

Meghan Trainor adds “Just Wanna Cry” to the deluxe edition of Toy With Me, out via Epic, and the hook says it all: “I just wanna cry, but I got shit to do.” It’s about faking your way through a day when you don’t have the capacity to feel what you’re actually feeling, dressed up in the upbeat, hook-forward pop Trainor’s always done well but with a real vibe. She worked on the track with ellis, Ryan Tedder, and others, and it’s one of the better songs she’s put out in a while. Stream here.

16. nic – “(enamorada)”

Peruvian singer-songwriter nic released her second studio album (enamorada) in April, a 10-track project centered on self-love, self-discovery, and staying present. It marks a real turn for her — more vulnerable, more emotionally free, and for the first time letting a sarcastic, playful side into the music that she’d previously kept out of it. She’s taking it on the road this fall with an international Enamorada Tour through Mexico, Peru, and Argentina. Stream here.

17. Daniela Lalita, Mietze Conte – “Tac Tac”

Peruvian producer Daniela Lalita shares “Tac Tac” with Vienna-based electronic artist Mietze Conte, the second single from her EP of the same name, out June 30. Lalita calls it “microscopic music” — pulsating production, deep undertones, her vocals woven directly into the rhythm — and she built most of it using nothing but Ableton’s stock plugins, misused on purpose. It follows her recent single “Tiroteo” with frequent collaborator Mura Masa. You’re going to want to turn this one way up. Stream here.

18. BKTHERULA, Whethan – “I GO PUNK”

BKTHERULA opens her N5ON era with “I GO PUNK,” the first official single from the upcoming album, bringing in producer Whethan for a high-energy, thrashing track that jumps between hip-hop cadence and electronic distortion without settling into either one. Stream here.

19. Debbii Dawson – “Mars”

One of the first songs written for Debbii Dawson‘s new EP, Where Have All the Good Men Gone?, long before she knew she was making one, “Mars” is a David Bowie-nodding love song about going to the ends of the universe for someone — with the title doubling as a nod to Mars as the god of war. She wrote it in Sweden with Rami Yacoub, Johnny Goldstein, and Savan Kotecha. The video is an absolute masterpiece as well. The LA-based, first-generation Indian-American singer first broke through on America’s Got Talent in 2022 with a cover of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” and this EP is her most pointed work yet. Stream here.

20. venbee – “not my day”

British artist venbee leans into a more playful mood on “not my day,” a song built from the small frustrations that can turn an ordinary day upside down, without losing the direct, everyday writing that’s defined her so far. The track was already picking up steam online before its official release, and Lewis Capaldi — who gets a shoutout in the lyrics — added to the moment by posting a video of himself dancing along to it on TikTok. Stream here.

21. Tiffany Day – “Everything I’ve Ever Wanted”

Tiffany Day opens her album HALO with “Everything I’ve Ever Wanted,” a two-minute burst of electropop that sits with wanting to chase your dreams and not being sure you measure up to the artists who inspired you to chase them in the first place — wondering if anyone will ever see you the way you see them, or if you’re even worthy of it. It’s a genuinely self-reflective opener from an artist who feels right on the cusp of a breakout year. Stream here.

22. Billi Royce – “Back To You”

Florida’s Billi Royce writes, produces, and sings every one of his own tracks, a rare hyphenate at this stage of his career. He broke through with “Missing You,” which crossed 20 million streams and picked up a second wind through a viral remix with LUCO, and he’s kept that momentum going since. “Back To You,” out via Isekai/broke, is a club-ready, summer track that keeps things simple and lets the hook do the work — a great one from a rising producer you should know. Stream here.

23. Cain Culto – “cucuru”

Former youth pastor turned queer art-pop provocateur Cain Culto sings over Afro-Colombian bullerengue rhythm on “cucuru,” written with Cary Singer and produced by Culto, Singer, and Nate Young. The track later landed on his Occulto 002 EP, a genre-chaos sampler that jumps between bluegrass, Latin folk, and dark club music without ever feeling like a gimmick. Stream here.

24. Angelo Mota – “or not”

West Orange, New Jersey’s Angelo Mota has built his catalog on a DIY approach — writing, producing, mixing, and mastering it all himself, going back to his breakout single “Do Not Disturb,” which has crossed 2.4 million streams. “or not” is a feel-good, sing-rap track built around the itch to get something off your chest finally, and it’s the kind of song that gets you moving without even trying. Stream here.

25. Mitty – “internet”

French artist Mitty closes out the list with “internet,” a hazy, ethereal cut built on synths and vocals that pull you in slowly — until the lyrics catch up with you. Underneath the dreamy production, she’s spiraling: comparing herself to a stale meme, blaming everyone but herself before circling back to wondering if she’s the problem. It’s self-deprecating in a very specific, very online way, co-written with Axel Logan and Antoine Piels, out via Un Plan Simple and Sony Music France. Stream here.