The Ultimate Summer Holiday Playlist: Revealed

There’s nothing quite like putting together a holiday playlist to get you in the mood. Whether you’re listening on the car stereo on the way to the airport or keeping your tunes to yourself in your headphones, handpicking the perfect playlist is the perfect way to prep for the holiday of your dreams.

And thankfully, there’s no shortage of inspiration – there are thousands of public Spotify playlists out there for you to inspire your summer selections.

Royal Westmoreland, provider of luxurious villas in Barbados, has crunched the numbers to find out the ultimate summer playlist songs, and the most popular artists to soundtrack your getaway playlist.

How many playlists are there out there?

There are 971 public Spotify playlists which match the search term “summer holiday” – which might seem low, but you’d be surprised how many people are holding their cards close to their chest with a private playlist.

Within those playlists, there’s a whopping 191,810 tracks – an average of 198 tracks per playlist. Seems like we like a good bit of variety in our getaway playlists – but which tracks top the list as the world’s favourite going into this year’s summer hols?

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 26/06/24.

Who’s the ultimate summer artist?

When it comes to the most popular artist to soundtrack your summer, there can only be one winner. Scottish DJ superstar Calvin Harris 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 figure is hardly surprising, though 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% of all playlists featuring under the search term “summer holiday” – that’s almost one in five!

Thinking about putting your own summer playlist together? Now you’ve got the perfect starting point. These sun-kissed classics are sure to get a great reaction out of your fellow holidayers!