What Was the Song of This Summer? Amelia Dimoldenberg, Zohran Mamdani, Questlove & More Share Their Picks

Popcast

The New York Times

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Music

3.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is there a universally agreed-upon song of the summer? These days, not really! So we asked some notable cultural figures for their personal favorites. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Popcast. What is up, Popcast? Hey, Bobcast, John and Joe. Hello, John, Joe. Hi, John and Joe. Greetings. Earthlings, good people. What's going on, Popcast? Listening to my song of my song of the summer. The R-Loyed to be asked what my song of summer is. Welcome to the New York Times Popcast, your highest elevation of music news and criticism. I'm John Caramonica, critic at the New York Times. I'm Joe Cascarly. I'm a culture reporter at the New York Times. Joe, it's summer. For now. Fake season. But still, it's summer. Is that meteorological? I don't believe in it. I don't believe in it.
0:37.7	It's not real.
0:34.9	It's not real. We'll come back to that. We'll come back to it. It's summer. And a lot of times people, they'll see me in the streets. Yep. See me driving in the car. And they're screaming. They're screaming. What's the song of the summer, John? walk through the halls in the New York Times
0:35.8	third floor.
0:37.0	Your editor finds you.
0:38.1	What's the song of the summer, John? Walk through the halls in the New York Times.
0:55.5	Yeah.
0:55.8	Third floor.
0:56.5	Your editor finds you.
0:57.6	What's the song of the summer?
0:59.1	Yep.
0:59.6	And it's a question that shakes me to my core because I know that it's premised upon a lie.
1:06.5	There is no song of the summer.
1:08.1	It's not a real thing.
1:09.5	I would argue that it has been historically.
1:11.7	Sure.
1:12.1	There are summers with songs that will forever be associated with those, like, sweaty months.
1:18.3	Like, there's the summer of work by Rihanna and Drake.
1:22.3	There's the summer of Despacito.
1:24.5	Sure.
1:24.9	But Justin Bieber and others, Luis Fonsi. I can't believe it, Bieber first. Unbelievable. That was a moment. Anquaya, also I want to point out, the song of the summer idea, in my mind, first gain currency off of a New York Times article from 1995. Is that true? Do you know about this article? No. 1995, I think it was in the magazine. It's by Stephen Talty, and it was about the summer of, You're All I Need to Get By, Meth and Man and Mary J. Blige. And it's an entire feature-length article about how that song was spreading in New York throughout the summer.
2:01.3	It was the first time I've really thought about it in those terms.
	...

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