Going into this article, I thought this was going to be a simple debate. But it turned out to be much more—an experiment, if you will. The newspaper and yearbook class made hypotheses, and off I went on a little bit—or so I thought—of research.
Here’s what I know about the question, “What is the song of the summer?”: it’s never a definitive answer. Even as years pass, people still debate the song from past summers. Some summers, this is an easier answer; other summers, it’s not. 2025 is clearly one of those summers it is not.
Some argue that there were many potential contenders this year, while others argue that there were none. I sought an answer—an answer that provides one song of the summer—not more, not less.
If there’s one thing to know, it’s that Columbus High’s students and teachers are equally as conflicted as this debate might seem on social media. To find out CHS’s overall consensus, I turned to my lovely email (who knew everybody in Columbus Public Schools had one of those?!). With the help of fellow Newspaper student Savannah Klee, we created a sample size of 91 teachers and students; in true statistics terms—if you want to be a nerd like me—it’s a mix of convenience and purposive sampling, but I digress. It’s important to note that, in true CHS student fashion, we only received 36 responses.
Let’s begin.
We’ll call this Round 1, even though I didn’t know it at the moment. This is when I sent the aforementioned email during 1st period on Tuesday. This form was supposed to provide me with the answers I wanted. It consisted of three questions: 1) What is the song of the summer?, 2) By whom?, and 3) Why?
Needless to say, this form did not provide me with what I was looking for. Right away, I realized I had made a grave mistake: I made the form in short-answer form. This meant everybody could pick any song they wanted—even songs that could not be contenders for various reasons.
Either way, I needed to rely on my results from this round, even if they weren’t sufficient. The only data I could truly use are the most named songs on this form. They were “Mystical Magical” by Benson Boone, “Ordinary” by Alex Warren, and “Golden” from the K-Pop Demon Hunters movie. While these are all possible contenders, they received an insignificant number of votes compared to the number of voters overall.
I made a decision: Round 2!
This time, I made the form in a multiple-choice/select all that apply form, which leaves far less room for varied responses. I included two main questions. The first one prompted a choice between the three most-voted songs from the previous round. The second question prompted respondents to choose three songs from a list of 19; these songs were the three from the question above, with 16 other songs that other Newspaper students and I deemed good contenders for this vote.
After completing the form, I sent another email on Thursday morning during 1st period. And yes, this included the same people as last time (even including those who didn’t respond in Round 1).
Almost immediately upon sending this form out, I realized how much better this was. Not only did I get matching answers, but this really streamlined the process for all parties involved; it made it clear to me which songs were selected, and it made the process much easier for those responding. In fact, this was so much so that we received 43 responses this time!! And I found a winner.
According to CHS, the 2025 Song of the Summer is… “Mystical Magical” by Benson Boone!!
It was a tight vote. In 2nd place, we see “Golden” from the K-Pop Demon Hunters movie on Netflix—this was one I didn’t even know about before now. In 3rd place, we saw a tie between “Ordinary” by Alex Warren and “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter. Our two runner-ups were “Love Me Not” by Ravyn Lenae and “back to friends” by sombr.
My thoughts? I could have seen this coming from a mile away. But also not. I knew “Mystical Magical” was popular, but I didn’t think people would vote it to be the song of the summer. However, as many noted in Round 1, it’s not that it was a good song; it’s that it was commonly heard.
What did I learn? Never send out a form in short-answer format if you’re expecting similar responses. That did not work in my favor. (And, yes, this article is being submitted dangerously close to my deadline due to this mistake.)
I fear it would be foolish to end this article without sharing my two cents. I personally think the song of the summer was “Love Me Not” by Ravyn Lenae.
No more comments.
Self-proclaimed statistician (I will never call myself that again) Reece Vasina out.
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