BY DERON DALTON
I’m not going to hold you. I missed “Brat Summer” in 2024. And needless to say, I regret that.
But don’t worry, I gave myself a Brat 2025—falling absolutely in love with this era of Charli XCX. And my admiration for Charli’s cuntiness came at a time when I thought I wasn’t going to let any other pop girlies into my kingdom of pop music royalty as a gay Black man in his mid-30s. My queens are set, I thought.
P.S. I love pop culture too much not to give newer or breakthrough pop girlies at least a shot. And I love a catchy pop bop, and okay—a dance track I can jig to.
But imagine my shock when I discovered my favorite bop from Charli’s “Brat” did not even make my top 100 most-played songs on my 2025 Spotify Wrapped. Charli’s “b2b” helped me dance through some dark times in 2025. The song that was produced in a lyrical loop remained in the top five of my “On Repeat” playlist throughout the year. I waited in anticipation, thinking “b2b” or Tate McRae’s “Sports Car” would take the top spot. But one song was nowhere to be found.
Here’s the background on how I found my way to Charli, how I fell in love with “b2b,” and what the hell happened to my Spotify Wrapped!
In 2024, when “Brat” became a thing, I was fighting for my financial life while I, funny enough, cut back on partying. I was looking for steadier full-time work outside of event bartending and serving, or app-based service gigs. I was far from finding my way “back to, back to, back to, back to” writing about pop culture, identity, social issues or anything journalistic.
Trust me, I still had some fun in the summer of 2024. But it just wasn’t this “Brat” summer for me that I kept seeing it in all those memes or hearing about from friends still in their ‘20s. Though in early 2025, I gave the instant club classic “360” repeated listens.
“Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat” came out in fall 2024, and by early 2025, I was bumping that. “Guess” featuring Billie Eilish caught me by the back of my neck; “Sympathy is a knife” featuring Ariana Grande became this lyrically relatable mid-tempo vibe; and “365” definitely sounded like an “amped up” version of “360.”
So it comes as no shock that any of these electronic-pop bops made it onto my Spotify Wrapped in 2025. Though the song that solidified me as a lifelong Charli’s Angel was missing from my Wrapped, leaving me confused and devastatedly pissed off. Enter “b2b,” the bop with a lyrical loop I mentioned earlier, which sent me down a rabbit hole, and I had to get to the bottom of it.
Why does this even matter, you ask? I’m glad you did. Well, I was really hoping my 2025 Wrapped would holistically showcase the insights in my listening data. As I said, the music I’ve been listening to has helped me get through some of the most challenging times in my life and continues to offer deep reflection on where I am and where I’m going.
Plus, I have been wanting to write about it for months! And I have written about it, as you, the reader, or I think I’ll call you all Pophearts, are reading it now, and you’re probably snickering as you read this part of my blog as I ramble. But you know what I mean? I wanted to write solely about the insights of my 2025 Spotify Wrapped and give the gurls the last listicle and playlist!
I wasn’t planning on writing about this weird narrative on how my data and insights got screwed up. Though it definitely makes for a more interesting story, and I’m still going to get to that listicle and playlist in any moment now.
While Beyoncé is still my “Alien Superstar” and “Renaissance” would still be cozy in the top five, new dance music and pop girlies will top this year’s lists. I was expecting a lighthearted showdown for the top spot.
Genius documented, in a loop on “b2b,” Charli sings:
“Back to, back to, back to, back to you
I don’t wanna fall right back to us
Maybe you should run right back to her
I don’t wanna go back, back to.”
The song’s lyrics are simple yet impactful, helping me move on from past “situationships” and get over bad situations I’ve been in. I proclaimed, “I didn’t want to go back” to any of “that mess.”
Hence, “b2b” was an anthem for both self-reflection and moving forward.
So imagine the puzzling look on my face as I scrolled and couldn’t find it on my Wrapped. And I couldn’t let it go because I REALLY played that song. On Thursday, May 22, 2025, I sent one of my besties a screenshot of my number-one song on my “On Repeat” playlist, and it stayed among the most-played songs for the rest of the year.
I contacted Spotify support. I explained everything I just wrote here and asked the support team to look into it. The best they could do was help me deduce what could have happened. After some research of my own, I discovered that “b2b” was somehow placed under the “Exclude from your Taste Profile” feature, which means it wouldn’t be included in personalized playlists or my 2025 Spotify Wrapped.
I DON’T HAVE ANY IDEA HOW I DID THIS, but my guess is that when I tried adding the song to the queue, I must have excluded it from my taste profile by mistake.
While “b2b” wasn’t included, another favorite wasn’t on the list. Pink Pantheress’ “Stateside + Zara Larsson” was also excluded from my taste profile but to be fair, I had just started listening to the song weeks before the presumed data cut-off for 2025 Wrapped.
After speaking with an agent about my Spotify data, they walked me through the process of downloading it. Turns out “b2b” was my most played song of the year.
With the erasure of that track, Charli was excluded from my top artists, which included Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Tate McRae, JADE, Doechii and Destiny’s Child. All other artists I revere. Thought Charli was my true no. 1 of the year with nearly 1,000 plays of “b2b” alone.
Here are the songs that made my top five (which is really my top six).
5. Doechii’s “Alter Ego (Precious Remix)” feat. JT, Precious
Per usual, Doechii bodied her verse. She had me hooked, and I was shaking my head along, like “yeah, she’s right,” with the opening lyrics to the first verse. IYKYK! We all have those “[BLEEP] her” moments. Just ask Billy Porter, who, for example, had to let the Donald Trump supporter Nicki Minaj know.
The song is simply CUNT. It’s when you know once you turn it on, you are THAT girl and have to announce it. The Precious remix only enhances that ballroom sound. Hence, I got my life listening to it.
Watch the original music video for “Alter Ego” featuring JT below.
4. Doechii’s “Nissan Altima”
What can I say? Doechii is high-energy, and “Nissan Altima” is one of the best examples of it. Her flow is unstoppable on this unapologetically explicit bop about sex, confidence and dominance. And I found it intoxicating to listen to and strut to during my extended mental health walks in 2025.
Due to age restrictions, you can watch the music video for “Nissan Altima” only on YouTube. However, you can watch Doechii’s Tiny Desk acoustic live performance of the bop below.
3. Beyoncé’s “PURE/HONEY”
This genre-bending dance-pop, inspired by Black queer ballroom culture with “PURE” and disco with “HONEY,” makes its way into the top five of my list for the fourth consecutive year. “PURE/HONEY” was the top song of 2022 and 2023, while dropping to no. 2 behind Destiny Child’s “Lose My Breath” in 2024. Nevertheless, as a song that remains in my top 10, my love for “PURE/HONEY” should never be questioned.
Watch a live performance of “PURE/HONEY” from the Renaissance World Tour in 2023.
2. Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra”
Gaga stole the 2025 Grammys when she debuted the music video for “Abracadabra” during a commercial break. The video was a return to form for Gaga, with elaborate theatrical style and intense choreography, with the theme being “dance or die.” The song is about finding the magic dancing through life, even with all of its challenges. And the gays definitely did that in 2025. Although I feel this upcoming 2026 Pride season and summer, we should bring this song back and really give it justice. Gaga said it: “dance or die!”
Watch the music video for “Abracadabra” below.
1. Tate McRae’s “Sports Car”
McRae’s “Sports Car” is the Britney Spears and The Pussycat Dolls mash-up I never knew I needed.
McRae twirls like she’s the daughter of both pop acts with her own flair, but the song itself is giving us a sultry beat very similar to PCD’s “Buttons” with Britney-esque “I’m a Slave for You” vocals.
McRare is giving “it’s Britney, bitch!” and “one of the Putty Cat Dolls. So just imagining me strutting down the sidewalks of New York and Prospect Park to “Sports Car” because that’s exactly what I do.
Watch the music video for “Sports Car” below.
In 2024, I was celebrating 20 years of the DC3 classic “Lose My Breath,” which dropped to No. 6 in 2025. Hence, I’m still celebrating that song two years later, as it was in my top 10 in 2025. “Guess” featuring Billie Eilish, SZA’s “Saturn,” The Illustrious Blacks and Tedd Paterson’s “Let the Music Set You Free” and Beyoncé’s “Summer Renaissance” in that order (no. 7-10) rounded out the top 10 most played songs of the year.
As for the rest of my musical tastes, well, it was a mix of sub-genres of pop, R&B and dance. You too can listen to my faves with my “Top Songs 2025” playlist, generated from my 2025 Spotify Wrapped.
Though this ordeal stressed me out, 2026 is shaping up to be another “BRAT” year. Charli’s musical mockumentary “The Moment” hit theaters on Jan. 30, and she released her chart-topping gothic pop soundtrack album of the same name as “Wuthering Heights” (2026).
In other words, I’ll be sure that my 2026 Spotify Wrapped will go “back to, back to, back to, back to” Charli XCX.
