Lyrics
Songwriters
Dance!
Best New Artist
R&B 🖤
100
This country artist wrote this romantic song for Nicole after they bought their first house together in Tennessee. It tells a tale of a couple whose bond is so durable that even when "the new wears off," their relationship is just as strong.
"Or the way the moonlight dances in your eyes
___________ in the kitchen
With no _____________
Other things that I could look at my whole life
A love like that makes a man have second thoughts
Maybe some things last forever after all"
"Forever After All" by Luke Combs
"Just a t-shirt in the kitchen
With no make-up and a million"
100
"It was very satisfying to scream," this singer told British Vogue. "Because I was very angry. There's so much anger in those songs - anger and disappointment and frustration." She originally titled it "Away From You."
"Happier Than Ever" by Billie Eilish O'Connell & Finneas O'Connell
100
Canadian composer, musician, and recording artist who has performed under the stage name similar to Reindeer.
"You Can Do It" by Caribou
100
This vulnerable song finds the artist begging for another chance after messing up a relationship. He keeps making the same mistakes, getting drunk and behaving badly; the teenage rapper beseeches his lover to forgive him and "stay."
Another singer enters halfway through with a verse addressed to his wife, Hailey. He admits to causing problems in their relationship because of trust issues, but cannot live without her.
"Stay" The Kid LAROI featuring Justin Beiber
100
This emotionally charged ballad finds this mononymous singer still missing his ex on the first anniversary of her walking out on him. The heartbroken crooner wonders if his former lover still thinks about him, and he still hopes she might return.
"Heartbreak Anniversary" by GIVEON
200
The Swedish pop legends released this rousing ode to the quartet's enduring bond as the lead single from their first album in 40 years. "It's about realizing that it's inconceivable to be where we are. No imagination could dream up that - to release a new album after 40 years and still be the best of friends and still be enjoying each other's company and have total loyalty. Who has experienced that? Nobody."
"Do I have it in me?
I believe it is in there
For I know_________
_________________"
"I Still Have Faith In You" by ABBA
"I know I hear a bittersweet song
In the memories we share"
200
I was going through a heartbreak that was so confusing to me, so multifaceted," this songwriter explained. "Putting all those feelings into a song made everything seem so much simpler and clearer - and at the end of the day, I think that's really the whole purpose of songwriting. There's nothing like sitting at the piano in my bedroom and writing a really sad song. It's truly my favorite thing in the world."
"drivers license" by
Daniel Nigro & Olivia Rodrigo
200
Australian alternative dance group wrote this intensely personal lyrics inspired by the highs and lows of a year in lockdown. Frontman Tyrone Lindqvist said "It's a heavier song in some ways, but at its core it's hopeful."
"Alive" by Rüfüs Du Sol
200
"The whole thing is meant to feel really reflective, and it ends up focusing on one memory, which is about a certain person that I really missed."
He wrote the song in May 2019, but this person's birthday is in June, thus the lines:
Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
"Every time it gets to May I start thinking about this person and how they're not in my life anymore, and I start missing that person," he said.
The whole thing is meant to feel really reflective, and it ends up focusing on one memory, which is about a certain person that I really missed," he told Genius.
He wrote the song in May 2019, but this person's birthday is in June, thus the lines:
Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
The song refers to the wavy air that rises off asphalt on extremely hot days, sometimes called a highway mirage, as a metaphor for his own failed promises. He's tried to offer his love all the things she wants and needs but they're just like heat waves rising off hot asphalt, illusory and without substance.
"Heatwave" by Glass Animals
200
This artist scored the PIXAR film "Soul." When asked what he loves about music, he answered:
What do you love most about music?
That it tells the truth! Besides things of divine nature, the closest that we have in terms of touch and sound and everything that’s on this realm, is music. That’s because it really can’t lie. At it’s purest form, it can’t lie. You can try to manipulate or sell a lie around it, but the expression of being what an artist gives to the people can’t be fabricated in any way.
"I NEED YOU" by Jon Batiste
300
The title of this song is Colombian slang for the heartache and loneliness a person feels after a lover breaks up with them. Here, Colombian reggaeton singer croons about getting really sad whenever she hears the song she and her ex used to listen to together.
Translate these lyrics:
Pero hice todo este llanto por nada
Ahora soy una chica mala
"Tusa" by KAROL G Featuring Nicki Minaj
Pero hice todo este llanto por nada
Ahora soy una chica mala
An English translation is:
But I cried all of that for nothing
Now I'm a bad girl
300
This rapper was born Montero Lamar Hill, and Call Me By Your Name is the title of a 2017 film starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet as lovers in the '80s. In the movie, Hammer tells Chalamet, "Call me by your name and I'll call you by mine."
"MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)" by Lil Nas X
300
Born in London in 1988, this artist was raised in a musical family. He was classically trained in piano from a very young age and focused on musical studies throughout his education. While still very young, he and his friends became fixated on electronic music, in particular the emerging dubstep sound that was beginning in London in the mid-2000s.
"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, straight to the floor
(Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce)"
"Before" by James Blake
300
This song speaks about the price of loving someone, because loving can be nice and wonderful, but it also has its downsides. This artist expresses this all throughout the lyrics, getting darker and darker with time.
"Love is Pain" by FINNEAS
300
1. Just when it seemed like the singer was running low on his luck, he created his own. He'd read that being "lucky" was the result of preparation and opportunity colliding, so he changed his name to reflect the life he hoped for.
2. “The first time I ever wrote my name was on a 2-octave keyboard my parents gave me. I wrote everything backwards. ‘YEBBA’ sloppily became my signature, instead of ‘Abbey’. My mom saw this, and… being the comedian she thought she was, she began to call me her ‘YEBBA’.
“…Out of love and respect for my mother and life itself, I’m changing my artist name to YEBBA. I’m making a promise to keep searching for my own reflection. To me, this is not a stage name; it’s not an alter ego; it’s not some great declaration. This is who I am. This is my reflection.”
"How Much Can A Heart Take"
Lucky Daye Featuring Yebba
400
After Cheek to Cheek's album was a success in 2014, a follow-up titled Love for Sale was released in 2021.
“The fact that Tony sees me as a natural-born jazz singer is still something that I haven't gotten over."
Night and day, you are the one
Only you ________________
Whether near to me or far
It's no matter darling where you are
I think of you
"Night and Day" by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett
"beneath the moon and under the sun"
400
"I wanted to make a song about kissing. I just thought it would be cute," this artist said. "That doesn't happen too often, but just a song that's solely about kissing."
"Kiss Me More" by Doja Cat Featuring SZA
400
"It's very, kind of like seasoning. It's also a more upbeat, fresh dance-pop track, like more like a summer anthem. Just all the positive vibes and upbeat energy. That's it. That's what ______ about."
"Our goal was to hit that sweet spot for the retro sound where millennials and older would know everything by heart," said Andrews, "and Gen Z would get the vibe but might not know some of the smaller details."
"Butter" by BTS
400
“Eugene” details an unrequited love for a straight girl who is in a relationship with a man named Eugene. In a tweet this artist explained that the song was inspired by a poem she wrote ‘at 3am on the night bus’:
"Eugene" by Arlo Parks
400
Born Solána Imani Rowe and raised in New Jersey, this singer quickly become one of the music world's most vulnerable and soulful poets.
She elaborated on how she brought that mantra into this song. "Good days is a mantra, More than... a belief,"
"Good days is about not being sure .. not Sure hope is still a thing, not sure better is coming, not sure any of even it matters. its an acknowledgement we're all in the same ugly chaotic beautiful existence. We're all shattered and stretched beyond our means in all Ways."
She added that the song embodies "shared energy," "possibility," and "A SLIVER of hope.. not even a whole lot. A reminder to OURSELVES .. that a sliver is sometimes all u need." Amen to that.
"Good Days" by SZA
500
Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind (oh)
Head on the pillow, I could feel you sneaking in
As if you were a mythical thing
—————
"Willow” Taylor Swift
500
These artists are both known as lovers of '60s and '70s R&B, and this song employs the romantic lyrics, smooth vocals, lush instrumentation and showy groove changes of that music:
"When we got together we were like 'what's the song that kind of puts everything on the table and kind of wraps up the whole vibe that we're going for, and what's the one that we could really take a chance on?' I don't think there's anything like it right now."
"Leave The Door Open"
Brandon Anderson, Christopher Brody Brown, Dernst Emile II & Bruno Mars, songwriters (Silk Sonic)
500
This bluesy, rootsy song finds the singer talking to his former partner in a messy relationship. They have met up for a reunion and Stapleton realizes the attraction is still there. He tells the girl she should step away before they give in to temptation and do something they will later regret.
"You Should Probably Leave" by Chris Stapleton
500
“Mohabbat” means “love” in Urdu. What is this song about?
The poetry was written in the 1920s by Hafeez Hoshiarpuri, and it’s kind of like a jazz standard. A lot of different musicians have done iterations of this, let’s say, standard.
Mohabbat
Seeing how you have ample lovers around you, I will not be one of them.
This is sad, as I love you the most. The sadness of this is equal to the sadness of all the world.
And were there not this one sadness, how much happiness would there be in this world.
And even if I do somehow get to be one of your lovers, the sadness of my time spent in separation from you will be all that consumes me.
I will not be one of those lovers to you.
—Translation by Arooj Aftab(Opens in a new window)
The poetry itself is really beautiful and appeals to a lot of different circumstances. It says the world will continue to love you and you will have an endless amount of lovers, but I won't be one of them. It also says the sadness of not being able to love you is equivalent to all the sadness that exists in the world, so it's kind of dramatic and kind of soulful. It’s very sweet. It's not someone angry or annoyed. It's kind of like a passing on, a moving on, a closure song.
About being on Obama's Summer Playlist:
It means a lot to me personally that he included me on there, because I think that often doesn't happen, because I'm a Pakistani American, brown, queer, female artist, and in so many ways that kind of puts you aside from from the main story a lot of the time. I just feel like he's really cool to do that. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe he just likes the song or whatever, but I think that there's a lot of meaning there in putting me on that list.
"Mohabbat" by Arooj Aftab
500
The singer understands that by falling/being in love, she is making herself vulnerable to her partner. Also personally speaking, she is in fact the sensitive type.
"Damage" by H.E.R.