Music heavyweights line up to claim rights to Aussie airwaves this summer
HERE comes the summer — and another clutch of songs that want to worm their way into your ears. So what makes a summer song catchy? VOTE IN OUR POLL
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DEEP-SEA diving around-the-clock. Bikini bottoms. Lager tops.
I could get used to this.
If you haven’t had these words stuck in your head, just give it time. The sun may only be just starting to creep out from behind the grey Sydney clouds — but many people are already calling George Ezra’s Shotgun the earworm of this summer.
And the British pop singer, who cites Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie as his biggest influences, has a history of nailing the melody of the holiday season.
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Four years ago his single Budapest was inescapable and racked up about 132 million views on YouTube.
Yet many think his new hit (already with 56 million views on YouTube) will be bigger.
“Summer songs fall into two moods; party and chill,” The Daily Telegraph’s national music writer Kathy McCabe said.
“It’s got to have the upbeat melodic hook and groove that can soundtrack a barbecue, pool party or lazy day hanging with family and friends.”
In the US, Billboard this week announced that mega-popular rapper Drake had won its official Song of the Summer trophy with his song In My Feelings.
To win the prize, the media brand said the single has to be the “most popular song … based on cumulative performance on the weekly Hot 100 from Memorial Day through Labor Day”.
Like most of Drake’s music, In My Feelings is more chill than dancefloor inspired.
Drake is only the sixth artist to hold the Billboard accolade twice — others include Jay Z (with 2003’s Crazy In Love and 2007’s Umbrella), Katy Perry (with 2008’s I Kissed A Girl and 2010’s California Girls) and Mariah Carey (with the 1990 Vision of Love and 2005’s We Belong Together).
Billboard gave this year’s number two ranking to another hip hop star; former stripper Cardi B with her song I Like It.
Rolling Stone recently said I Like It was a “no-brainer” for the song of summer.
“(It) sounds like it was chemically concocted in a mad scientist’s lab to be 2018’s reigning song of the summer,” the music magazine said.
“Everything about this song is perfect for summer: the trap-meets-salsa beat, features from two of reggaeton’s biggest stars (J Balvin and Bad Bunny) and a sample of Pete Rodriguez’s half-century-old boogaloo hit I Like It Like That.”
Cardi B is due to hit our shores when she headlines New Year’s Day festival Field Day in Sydney.
Of course, with summer still officially months away in Australia there’s every chance the song of our summer is one only just starting to get traction.
Donald Glover — known as Childish Gambino — recently had a viral hit with anti-gun protest song This Is America.
McCabe predicts his new hit Feels Like Summer will be huge too.