Ranking the 10 Best Dance Songs of 2020
Most people would agree that 2020 didn’t make the shortlist for the best year ever. After all, it was when COVID-19 spread throughout the world, thus necessitating emergency measures to slow its spread as much as possible.
Everyone came up with ways to cope. Unsurprisingly, listening to music was one of the most popular. Luckily, 2020 was a good year for dance songs.
Here is our opinion of the 10 of the best dance songs of 2020:
10. “Dancing” – Katie Dey
Katie Dey is one of the less-known names on this list. She is an experimental pop musician, meaning her musical output can’t be classified using conventional labels. As such, Dey falls outside of the mainstream.
Still, her name sees increased mention from time to time. In 2020, that happened because she released her fourth studio album Mydata. It is focused on online relationships, so much so that the music video for “Dancing” was filmed in Second Life.
9. “Honey” – Eats Everything
Eats Everything is an English DJ who rose to prominence in the early 2010s. Since then, he has continued releasing new music, working solo and in partnership with others. “Honey” is good for giving interested individuals a shot of energy when they need it.
8. “anthems” – Charli XCX
Charli XCX released her third studio album Charli in 2019. Subsequently, she decided to record not one but two studio albums in 2020 for release in 2021. That didn’t quite happen for obvious reasons.
Instead, Charli XCX made a “quarantine album” while in self-isolation, though she received constant support from her fans, friends, and producers. Everything was ready to go by May 2020.
This song wasn’t one of the new release’s three singles. Despite that, “anthems” might have stood out the most. Strictly speaking, it isn’t a dance song. Even so, it works surprisingly well in that context.
7. “Future Nostalgia” – Dua Lipa
Dua Lipa released her second studio album Future Nostalgia in March 2020. It is a nostalgic-sounding disco-flavored pop record, which makes sense because she took deliberate inspiration from the music she listened to in her childhood.
The title track wasn’t one of the six singles that became hits from late 2019 to early 2021. Still, it received enough play to contribute to the disco revival in 2020.
6. “The Prince” – Madeon
Madeon is a French DJ from Nantes on the country’s Atlantic coast. He received widespread interest for the first time because of a YouTube video in the early 2010s.
Thanks to that, he became notable enough to release an EP in 2012, a studio album in 2015, and a second studio album in 2019. “The Prince” has lyrics that are hard to make out. Fortunately, its sound is filled with melancholic moodiness, thus making it perfect for 2020.
5. “Douha (Mali Mali)” – Disclosure featuring Fatoumata Diawara
“Douha (Mali Mali)” came from a team-up between the English electronic duo Disclosure and the Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara. It is meant as a cry for assistance for the country.
For context, Mali is a sizable, land-locked country in West Africa. It is currently in a civil war that started with a Tuareg rebellion in 2012. Furthermore, Mali has experienced multiple coups since that time, which included one in 2020 and another in 2021.
These events have had a horrendous effect on the country’s people. Even worse, the situation remains precarious, meaning it is far from resolved. As such, it isn’t hard to see where Diawara was coming from.
4. “The Streets Where I Belong” – Annie
Annie’s career started before the turn of the millennium. She released one studio album in 2004 and then a second one in 2009. After all, Annie didn’t release her third studio album until 2020, though she remained active throughout the in-between period.
“The Streets Where I Belong” gains additional meaning when one learns the release is supposed to be the soundtrack of a nonexistent movie. Of course, people can enjoy it as it is.
3. “Say Something” – Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue’s career started even earlier. Specifically, she started singing in the late 1970s, though she took longer to break through on the international stage than in her homeland of Australia.
Regardless, Minogue has remained relevant for four decades and counting because of her astonishing ability to reinvent herself. In 2020, she proved that once more with her fifteenth studio album, one of the releases that contributed to the disco revival.
“Say Something” has an experimental sound but won over listeners anyway. Thanks to that, Minogue’s fifteenth studio album was on solid footing from the start.
2. “Apricots” – Bicep
“Apricots” isn’t what most people think of when they think of dance songs. Generally, those don’t include samples from either traditional Malawian singers or Communist Bulgarian state choirs.
Never mind both. That said, Bicep brought the disparate elements together with masterful skill, thus resulting in something more than the sum of its parts.
1. “Rain On Me” – Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande
There are numerous songs named “Rain On Me.” This one would be the collaboration between Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande in 2020, which would stand out even if it wasn’t such a recent release.
The song had a record-setting debut at the top of the charts in the United States. It was the first song from an all-female collaboration that had done so. Similarly, it made Ariana Grande the first artist to have four number-one debuts.
“Rain On Me” met similar success in other countries, as shown by how it reached the top of the charts in nine other countries. As such, it more than earned its position at the top of this list.
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- The 20 Best Hit Songs from 2008
