Song Of The Season The Track That Ruled Summer 2022

Find out what artist took home the crown, according to Genius pageviews.
This year was kind of an unusual summer for music. Boosted by the success of a Netflix series, an ‘80s throwback returned to rule the charts; Beyoncé, Drake, and even Megan Thee Stallion dipped into house music; and The Game waged war on Eminem with what has to be one of the longest (and maybe most unnecessary) diss tracks of all time. But which of those artists spent the most time on our minds during Instagram-worthy European vacations, backyard cookouts, and days at the beach? We here at Genius have your answer.

With summer 2022 officially coming to a close yesterday, we decided to comb through Genius data to determine the Song of the Season using songpage views racked up on the site between the first official day of summer (June 21) and the first official day of fall (September 22). Read on to find out what song took home the crown this year and all the songs that were runners up.

Song of the Season: Summer 2022
Racking up over 1.9M Genius pageviews in just three months, the song that earns the official Song of the Season: Summer 2022 title by a long shot is Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill (Made A Deal With God).”

A year ago, it might have been inconceivable that a 37-year-old song could claim the honor, but the impetus for the track’s renewed success explains a lot. The song resurfaced after appearing in the record-breaking fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, which one could just as easily argue was this year’s show of the summer. The recurring soundtrack placement quickly led to legions of Gen Z teens discovering the throwback for the first time, flooding TikTok with videos using the audio, and apparently scouring the Genius site for interpretations of the track’s lyrics.

In late July, “Running Up That Hill” topped the U.K. charts and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, 27 spots higher than its original 1985 U.S. peak. In addition to that, its renewed success earned Bush three Guinness World Records: Oldest Female Artist To Reach Number One, Longest Time For A Track To Reach Number One On The U.K.’s Official Singles Chart, and Longest Gap Between Number Ones. Now, she gets to add a Genius honor to that list.

Runners-up
While no one came close to Bush’s nearly 2 million pageviews, plenty of other songs made a solid impression on music fans over the past three months. Below are a list of the next 10 runners-up in the race for Song of the Season to fuel your summer nostalgia as fall descends upon us.

“God Did” by DJ Khaled (598K pageviews)
“Doja” by Central Cee (542K pageviews)
“Break My Soul” by Beyoncé (429K pageviews)
“The 30th” by Billie Eilish (415K pageviews)
“死ぬのがいいわ (Shinunoga E-Wa)” by 藤井風 (Fujii Kaze) (413K pageviews)
“Die For You” by The Weeknd (386K pageviews)
“Techo (Tight)” by Aarne, BUSHIDO ZHO & ANIKV (381K pageviews)
“Glimpse of Us” by Joji (379K pageviews)
“Pink Venom” by BLACKPINK (375K pageviews)
“Is This Love (‘09)” By Eminem (364K pageviews)