TikTok’s Top 10 Songs of Summer 2026 Show That Old Music Is Winning Again
TikTok has revealed its biggest songs of Summer 2026, and the track sitting at number one isn’t a new release from 2026.
It isn’t even from this decade.
Katy Perry’s The One That Got Away, originally released as a single in 2011, has been named TikTok’s Global Song of the Summer for 2026.
The 15-year-old track has experienced an extraordinary revival on the platform, being used in more than 42 million TikTok videos generating over 55 billion video views. Its TikTok resurgence has also pushed the song back into charts around the world, including the Billboard Global 200.
But Katy Perry isn’t the only older artist finding a completely new audience on TikTok.
In fact, the entire top four of TikTok’s US Songs of the Summer ranking can be classified as catalogue music.
TikTok’s top 10 songs of Summer 2026
Here are the tracks that dominated TikTok during Summer 2026:
- The One That Got Away – Katy Perry – 2011
- Cinderella (feat. Ty Dolla $ign) – Mac Miller – 2016
- It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over – Lenny Kravitz – 1991
- Earrings – Malcolm Todd – 2024
- Ghetto Love Story – BabyChiefDoit – 2026
- End of August – Noah Kahan – 2026
- Spend Dat – Yung Miami – 2026
- Self Aware – Temper City – 2026
- Dai Dai – Shakira & Burna Boy – 2026
- DANCE… – Slayyyter – 2026
TikTok published the top 10 as part of its Songs of the Summer 2026 coverage. Release dates for tracks including Earrings, Ghetto Love Story, End of August, Spend Dat, Self Aware and DANCE… confirm the unusual split between catalogue tracks at the top and newer releases further down the ranking.
A 15-year-old Katy Perry song beat every new release
The biggest example is The One That Got Away.
Originally taken from Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream era, the song was released as a single in 2011.
Fifteen years later, TikTok has effectively turned it into a hit all over again.
The track became popular across nostalgic videos, TV edits, covers and personal relationship videos before spreading much further across the platform.
TikTok says the revival has helped The One That Got Away surpass 1.8 billion Spotify streams while returning the song to charts internationally.
It’s a remarkable demonstration of how little release dates matter to younger listeners.
Someone discovering The One That Got Away through TikTok in 2026 doesn’t necessarily think of it as a “2011 song”.
To them, it might simply be a song they discovered this week.
Mac Miller’s 2016 track comes in at number two
The second biggest TikTok track of the summer is another catalogue release.
Mac Miller’s Cinderella featuring Ty Dolla $ign originally appeared on The Divine Feminine in 2016.
Ten years later, the song has become huge with another generation of listeners.
TikTok users have particularly embraced the track for relationship videos, nostalgic posts and emotional edits.
TikTok hasn’t just revived the track.
It has effectively introduced Mac Miller’s music to millions of listeners who may have been children when Cinderella was originally released.
A song from 1991 is number three
Then things get even more interesting.
The third biggest track is Lenny Kravitz’s It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over.
Release year: 1991.
The song is around 35 years old.
Its resurgence was helped by its appearance in FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, before TikTok creators began using it heavily across relationship, television and even pet videos.
That means a track released decades before TikTok existed managed to outperform almost every major new release on the platform during Summer 2026.
Even number four is catalogue
Malcolm Todd’s Earrings feels comparatively new.
But it was released on April 5, 2024.
Luminate generally defines catalogue music as music that has been available for more than 18 months.
That means Earrings also falls into the catalogue category by Summer 2026.
As Music Business Worldwide pointed out, this makes TikTok’s entire US top four catalogue music.
Only when we reach number five do we get to music actually released during 2026.
New music hasn’t disappeared
It’s important not to overstate the trend.
The rest of the top 10 contains plenty of new music.
BabyChiefDoit’s Ghetto Love Story, Noah Kahan’s End of August, Yung Miami’s Spend Dat, Temper City’s Self Aware, Shakira and Burna Boy’s Dai Dai and Slayyyter’s DANCE… were all released during 2026.
In fact, six of the top 10 are current-year releases.
But it’s the positioning that is fascinating.
New music occupies positions five through ten.
Catalogue occupies positions one through four.
TikTok therefore isn’t simply helping older music remain relevant.
Older music is actually beating new music.
The UK TikTok chart is even more nostalgic
The phenomenon isn’t limited to the US.
TikTok’s UK Song of the Summer 2026 is Kyla and DJ Paleface’s Do You Mind, originally released in 2008.
The track generated more than 543 million UK video views from around 644,000 creations during the summer.
Five of the UK’s top 10 TikTok songs were originally released before 2010.
Oasis also managed to land two tracks from 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? in the ranking, with Wonderwall reaching number two and Champagne Supernova reaching number six.
Again, we’re seeing young audiences treating music catalogues almost like an unlimited source of new releases.
TikTok is changing what an “old song” means
Streaming already changed the lifecycle of music.
TikTok may be changing it even further.
Historically, the music industry revolved heavily around release cycles.
A single launched.
Radio played it.
Marketing peaked.
The song moved down the charts.
Then everyone moved onto the next release.
Streaming made catalogue music permanently accessible.
TikTok has added something else: permanent rediscovery.
Any song from any era can suddenly become attached to a meme, dance, television programme, relationship trend or cultural moment.
Once that happens, the algorithm doesn’t particularly care whether the track was released last Friday or in 1991.
Millions of people can suddenly discover it at exactly the same time.
Catalogue music is becoming increasingly valuable
This also has major implications for the value of music catalogues.
Music Business Worldwide previously calculated using Luminate data that catalogue tracks accounted for 75.8% of US audio streams during the first half of 2025.
TikTok provides another engine capable of sending listeners back towards those catalogues.
A song isn’t necessarily finished when its original promotion campaign ends.
It might be waiting 5, 10, 20 or even 30 years for the right cultural moment.
We saw another extreme example in 2025 when Connie Francis’ Pretty Little Baby became TikTok’s Global Song of the Year.
That song was originally released in 1962.
Now Katy Perry has achieved something similar with a song from 2011.
The biggest TikTok hit could already have been released
For artists, labels and music rights owners, there is a pretty obvious lesson here.
Don’t automatically assume the next viral hit needs to be a new release.
There are hundreds of millions of existing tracks sitting on streaming services that younger audiences have never heard.
TikTok is effectively allowing those songs to compete with new releases again.
Summer 2026 might be one of the clearest examples yet.
TikTok’s biggest song is 15 years old.
Its number two song is 10 years old.
Its number three song is 35 years old.
And its number four song was released more than two years ago.
Music might have release dates.
But on TikTok, it increasingly doesn’t seem to have an expiry date.