The 20 Best Pop Radio Hits of 2025
I always do this list last, after I've kind of carved out all the songs that were on Top 40 radio that crossed over from other formats. And pop-as-a-genre feels about as strong critically and creatively as it's ever been, to say nothing of commercially, with a lot of these artists making cohesive albums that people enjoy as a whole. And there's still a nice bit of musical diversity, all these weird little subgenre niches bubbling up to the service, even on records by A-list pop divas.
Here's the Spotify playlist, and the lists I've already posted for rap, R&B, country, and rock/alternative.
1. Tate McRae - "Revolving Door"
#6 Pop Airplay, #22 Hot 100
Even having a really great 2025, I don't think Tate McRae really feels like one of the new main pop girls like Sabrina or Chappell or Olivia, a lot of her music just isn't that good or that memorable, but occasionally she makes a track that I think is amazing, and she did that twice this year with "Revolving Door" and the promo single "2 Hands" that sadly got no radio play. Most of McRae's songs are either choreography-ready uptempo tracks or introspective sad songs, and "Revolving Door" manages to be both to great effect. It was firmly her fourth biggest song of the year, after the Morgan Wallen duet (her first #1), the Kid Laroi breakup subtweet, and the "I'm a Slave 4 U" knockoff, but "Revolving Door" was my favorite thing to hear on the radio for a big chunk of 2025.
2. Olivia Dean - "Man I Need"
#5 Pop Airplay, #4 Hot 100
Just such a lovely little beam of sunshine, it was really a pleasant surprise that Olivia Dean blew up in America almost as big as she did back home in the UK this year, that rarely happens now. And how she handled a ticket price snafu makes me think she's going to do good things with that spotlight aside from making sumptuous pop soul.
3. Raye - "Where Is My Husband!"
#27 Pop Airplay, #37 Hot 100
Raye and Olivia Dean went to the same performing arts school as teenagers and have been very supportive of each other as rising stars, which I love to see. Right now Dean's having a serious moment, and I hope Raye is on her way too because her talent is just insane, I love the way she sings circles around this track that sounds like something Rich Harrison could've made in 2005.
4. Zara Larsson - "Crush"
#17 Pop Airplay
Zara Larsson's been a major star in her native Sweden for the past decade, but she kind of comes and goes on the American charts, and I'm glad she finally seemed to plant her flag this year with the best album of her career.
5. Justin Bieber - "Daisies"
#1 Pop Airplay, #2 Hot 100
I didn't really delve into Dijon and Mk.gee's own brilliant stuff until I heard them deploy their deconstructed pop style on the latest album by one of the biggest pop stars in the world. I wanna be cynical about Justin Bieber maintaining his relevance with something left-field and even a little lo-fi, but his voice sounds fantastic on "Daisies" and the gentle swing and crunchy guitar tone sounded fantastic when turned up really really loud on my car radio. Fantastic song, probably his best since "Sorry."
6. Sabrina Carpenter - "Manchild"
#1 Pop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
I rolled my eyes initially when I heard Sabrina Carpenter's lead single feature that same shrill trebly Jack Antonoff sound that drove me up the wall on her previous #1 "Please Please Please," but this song very quickly escalates with these dramatic guitar stabs and twangy riffs and Carpenter singing completely different vocal melodies on the first verse, second verse, and bridge. Just a really brilliantly assembled, funny, inventive song.
7. Chappell Roan - "Pink Pony Club"
#1 Pop Airplay, #4 Hot 100
Lots of years-old songs chart these days thanks to random TikTok trends, but "Pink Pony Club" enjoyed an old-fashioned slow build. 2019: Chappell Roan and Daniel Nigro write "Pink Pony Club." 2020: After a year of hesitation, Atlantic Records releases "Pink Pony Club." 2021: Nigro suddenly becomes a name brand hitmaker after producing a pair of Olivia Rodrigo chart-toppers, and a prescient Vulture piece proposes that "Pink Pony Club" should be the song of the summer, but it still doesn't chart. 2022: Roan parts ways with Atlantic and signs to Island, but manages to keep the rights to "Pink Pony Club," knowing it's a key song for her debut album. 2023: That album is released, to relatively little fanfare. 2024: Roan suddenly blows up and several of her songs chart, but "Pink Pony Club" is outperformed by "Hot To Go." 2025: Roan performs "Pink Pony Club" at the Grammys, and it reaches its Hot 100 peak in April, just after the 5th anniversary of the song's release, and increasingly feels like it's supplanted "Good Luck, Babe" as her signature song.
8. The Marias - "No One Noticed"
#22 Pop Airplay, #22 Hot 100
Usually the album cuts that go viral on TikTok and become surprise hits are big noisy hooky things, but "No One Noticed" was such a quiet little mood piece that I, well, didn't notice it the first time I listened to the Marias' album Submarine, until it suddenly started charting. Truly one of the most unexpected Top 40 breakthroughs in recent memory, I thought maybe they'd become an alternative radio fixture in a best case scenario.
9. Ravyn Lenae - "Love Me Not"
#2 Pop Airplay, #5 Hot 100
Another viral song from a critical darling that previously didn't seem to be on a pop crossover trajectory. It totally makes sense to me that "Love Me Not" bypassed R&B radio completely to become a monster pop hit, although I do wonder if some of her more overtly R&B stuff will do well in the future now that she's more established.
10. Benson Boone - "Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else"
#2 Pop Airplay, #19 Hot 100
Between all the goofy backflips and the mustache and the horrid "Mystical Magical," I understand why Benson Boone became an easy target for ridicule this year. But his lead single was a really nice little fast guitar pop song.
11. The Weeknd - "Cry For Me"
#5 Pop Airplay, #12 Hot 100
Hurry Up Tomorrow's big Max Martin-produced lead single "Dancing In The Flames" was absolute garbage. On the bright side, that left the field open for "Cry For Me," which was produced by Metro Boomin and Mike Dean and sampled an obscure '90s S.O.S. Band track, to become the album's big pop radio hit.
12. Billie Eilish - "Wildflower"
#11 Pop Airplay, #17 Hot 100
"Birds of a Feather" was so massive for so long that it kind of felt like it didn't matter which of the various less immediate songs on Hit Me Hard and Soft was released as a follow-up single. "Wildflower" was a nice, kind of low key choice, but it ended pretty big in its own right, with 72 weeks on the Hot 100 and nominations for the same two big Grammy categories "Birds" was up for, Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
13. Chappell Roan - "The Giver"
#27 Pop Airplay, #5 Hot 100
Given how huge both Chappell Roan and country crossover hits were in 2024, it was a reasonably smart risk for her to release "The Giver" as a single, especially after its well received "Saturday Night Live" debut. Unfortunately, it didn't really take off on pop radio after a nice big streaming debut, and only grazed Country Radio airplay at #60 (which is still pretty good for such an outwardly queer song). Her next single "The Subway" was also great but just barely fared better on the radio, peaking at #26 on Pop Airplay. I think she should just drop the album, people can pick the hits after the fact the same way they did with her debut.
14. Doja Cat - "Jealous Type"
#9 Pop Airplay, #28 Hot 100
Scarlet was, on paper, a successful pivot, going platinum with a #1 single, but it really feels like it slowed down Doja Cat's career to a point that not even making a fun shiny '80s-themed pop album with Jack Antonoff didn't seem to rescue her momentum. Some really good songs on that album, though, I'm kinda glad she stopped trying to make some vague point about how she's above her most successful records.
15. Sabrina Carpenter - "Tears"
#6 Pop Airplay, #3 Hot 100
Sabrina Carpenter was on an insane hot streak with 6 singles that hit #1 on Pop Airplay in the space of 18 months ("Busy Women" peaked at #20 in that time, but that was just a track from the Short n' Sweet deluxe that didn't get a big push). Nobody can keep that kind of momentum going forever, though, and I'm not surprised that it ended with "Tears" -- the word "wet" is central to the chorus and the radio edit always sounds awkward with it blanked out. Really catchy song, though, grew on me a lot in the last few weeks.
16. Taylor Swift - "Opalite"
#14 Pop Airplay, #2 Hot 100
"The Fate of Ophelia" is still entrenched at #1 on pop radio, too big to fail as the first Taylor Swift/Max Martin joint in over 7 years. But it speaks volumes that the most popular album track is already rising fast on radio charts, "Opalite" has a similar sound but is a much, much better song with much less annoying lyrics.
17. Lady Gaga - "Abracadabra"
#6 Pop Airplay, #13 Hot 100
I feel like comeback-hungry Gaga fans got behind Mayhem more than it deserved, I'm still a little baffled that "Abracadabra" is nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. But it was fun to get such a frenetic, noisy old school Gaga song in heavy rotation.
18. Disco Lines & Tinashe - "No Broke Boys"
#15 Pop Airplay, #36 Hot 100
I really love the original "No Broke Boys," I thought it was honestly a much better song than her big 2024 comeback hit "Nasty." I was a little dismayed that it blew up this year via a remix that speeds up the song and loses some of the things I like about it, but it's starting to grow on me in this incarnation.
19. Lisa f/ Raye and Doja Cat - "Born Again"
#25 Pop Airplay, #68 Hot 100
Blackpink was absolutely everywhere year, with a new group single as well as a ton of solo music from all four members, with Rose's Bruno Mars collaboration "Apt." becoming by far the biggest American hit involving anyone from Blackpink to date. But I really liked this disco banger from Lisa a lot more, which was clearly written by Raye aside from Doja's verse, and really set my expectations high for Raye's second album.
20. Hunter/x - "Golden"
#1 Pop Airplay, #1 Hot 100
As ubiquitous as Blackpink were this year, they kind of lost their status as the most successful K-pop girl group in America after a fictional group of animated characters from a Netflix movie unexpectedly became a total pop culture phenomenon. I kinda like the David Guetta remix of "Golden" more than the original, though.
The 10 Worst Pop Radio Hits of 2025:
1. Benson Boone - "Mystical Magical"
2. Alex Warren - "Ordinary"
3. SZA - "BMF"
4. Tate McRae - "Sports Car"
5. Akon - "Akon's Beautiful Day"
6. Jessie Murph - "Blue Strips"
7. Katy Perry - "Bandaids"
8. Blackpink - "Jump"
9. Jonah Marais f/ Ryan Lewis - "Slow Motion"
10. David Guetta f/ Teddy Swims and Tones And I - "Gone Gone Gone"
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on Thursday, December 11, 2025 at 2:28 PM.
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