The best songs of the year: 50 tracks that moved us

From Rosalía’s sacred sound monument to Lady Gaga’s comeback: these 50 songs moved us. Discover the tracks of the year.

The best songs of the year from Rosalía, Florence And The Machine, Lady Gaga and many more. Discover the most important tracks from pop to indie here.

1. Rosalía – “Berghain” (feat. Björk & Yves Tumor)

“I’ll fuck you ’til you love me”: The Spanish superstar leads us into an art-pop frenzy: where the London Symphony Orchestra meets Björk, a powerful choir meets Yves Tumor, high culture and ecstasy merge.

German, Spanish, English – three languages, a passionate confession: “His fear is my fear”, radical empathy. Rosalía created a sacred sound monument inspired by Vivaldi’s “Winter”.

2. Florence And The Machine – “One Of The Greats”

An outcry, a revelation: “It must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can” – this line burns into your memory like a beacon against the patriarchy. It’s not a muse speaking here, but the creator herself. Between anger, pride and injured dignity, a work grows that celebrates female self-assertion: “I crawled up from under the earth/ Broken nails and coughing dirt.”

3. Lady Gaga – “Abracadabra”

After the slow years since BORN THIS WAY, Mother Monster returns to the former successful formula: nonsense chorus with stuttering hook, crazy synth loops, thundering beats. Despite all the calculations, the calculation works out: “Abracadabra” was such a hit that Lady Gaga didn’t dare to release another single from her mixed album MAYHEM.

4. Sevdalitsa – “Messiah”

The Dutch-Iranian singer reverses the savior motif: “Why is it such a sin to believe in the God inside me?” When her performance in Armenia was canceled because of allegedly sacrilegious symbolism – in the video she simulates sex on a cross-shaped bed – it became clear: This music doesn’t want to please, it wants confrontation.

5. Doechii – “Anxiety”

The US rapper transforms nervousness into pop analysis – and, of all things, samples Gotye’s 2011 global hit “Somebody That I Used To Know”. The Belgian was abandoned at that time; Doechii now leaves her fear. Heartbreak turns into hyperventilation. Released on YouTube back in 2019, a new recording climbed the charts after the song became a TikTok trend.

6. Sabrina Carpenter – “Manchild”

It’s actually an impossibility: to give a hit like “Espresso”, which has been certified perfection by everyone from Trent Reznor to Debbie Harry, an equal successor in just one year. But Carpenter and co-songwriter Jack Antonoff pulled it off effortlessly. “Manchild,” an incredibly catchy song about male hubris, smiles as he bites.

7. Pulp – “Got To Have Love”

By the seventh track at the latest you knew that from MORE you would get everything you had been waiting for from the Britpop pioneers for 24 years, here they even take you back to the “Disco 2000”. An urgent dance request full of self-references (“And you sit on your backside for twenty-five years”, “Well, I’ll spell it for you, it goes ‘LOVE’”).

8. Tristan Brusch – “Born to Die”

Lana del Rey always knew it: We were born to die. Eat that, Count Unholy! “Born to die” is a poetic seduction of chanson and pop grand sound, a statement between the net of life and the silence of the grave, which could so easily take off but always remains on the ground. And at some point you’ll get comfortable six feet under it. Does André Heller know that Tristan Brusch exists?

9. Erika Vikman – “I’m coming”

The Finn shook the ESC with this bombshell – a high-energy piece of music that is more passionate than defending the country. Between choral singing and hi-speed beats, an ecstatic pop unfolds that sounds like the spiritual successor to the Army of Lovers.

10. Paul’s Jets – “I’m afraid I can’t live without you or I can, I think so, but it’s not nice”

Please, who describes heartache with such poetic everyday observations like the desire for a pebble existence in the lyrics here and packs it into perfect indie dance pop with a droning riff that jumps up and down like love itself? Only Paul Buschnegg.

11. Gymnastics Styles – “Never Enough”

12. Sophia Kennedy – “Hot Match”

13. Miley Cyrus – “Secrets” (feat. Lindsey Buckingham & Mick Fleetwood)

14. Geese – “Au Pays du Cocaine”

15. Little Simz – “Flood”

16. Yassin – “Please be careful”

17. DJ Koze – “How beautiful you are” (feat. Armin & Düsseldorf Düsterboys)

18. Thom Yorke & Mark Pritchard – “Back In The Game”

19. Bon Iver – “Everything Is Peaceful Love”

20. Lorde – “Hammer”

21. Alex G – “Afterlife”

22. Addison Rae – “Headphones On”

23. Lily Allen – “Pussy Palace”

24th Wednesday – “Elderberry Wine”

25. FKA Twigs – “Striptease”

26. Nina Chuba – “Insecure”

27. Squid – “Perfume Genius”

28. The Last Dinner Party – “This Is The Killer Speaking”

29. Wet Leg – “CPR”

30. Bad Bunny – “DTMF”

31. Allison Russell – “Superlover” (feat. Annie Lennox)

32. Sault – “I Look for You”

33. Chappell Roan – “The Giver”

34. King Princess – “Cry Cry Cry”

35. Fiona Apple – “Pretrial (Let Her Go Home)”

36. HAIM – “Relationships”

37. Wolf Alice – “White Horses”

38. Black Country, New Road – “Besties”

39. The Waterboys – “Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend” (feat. Fiona Apple)

40. Sam Fender – “Reign Me In” (feat. Olivia Dean)

41. Water from Your Eyes – “Playing Classics”

42. Jeff Tweedy – “Caught Up In The Past”

43. Perfume Genius – “It’s A Mirror”

44. Nine Inch Nails – “As Alive As You Need Me To Be”

45. Deafheaven – “Winona”

46. ​​Fuffifufzich – “I may love you forever”

47. Nourished By Time – “Max Potential”

48. Aesop Rock – “Unbelievable Shenanigans” (feat. Hanni El Khatib)

49. Olivia Dean – “Nice To Each Other”

50. The Darkness – “I Hate Myself”