The 10 Best Jackson Wang Songs of All-Time
Jackson Wang is a Chinese musician known for pop, hip-hop, and R&B. He started as a member of the South Korean boy band Got7 in 2014. Since then, he has launched both solo and group projects. Besides these things, Wang is also involved in various other things. For example, he was once a competitive saber fencer. Likewise, he is now engaged in the running of his record label. Currently, Wang’s career seems to be going strong, so seeing how he continues to fare will be interesting.
Here is our opinion of the ten best Jackson Wang songs released so far:
10. “Cheetah”
Cheetahs have had a surprisingly close relationship with humans. They are neither afraid of humans nor antagonistic towards humans. As a result, cheetahs were tamed by the earliest civilizations. Unfortunately, they are hard to breed in captivity, thus explaining why they have never been domesticated. Despite this, cheetahs retain an understandable reputation for speed and power. This song leans into those ideas by describing a woman as the titular animal. Funny enough, it calls her a metaphorical man-eater, even though wild cheetahs have never been known to kill humans. Still, “Cheetah” is enjoyable enough as a song, which makes sense because it is a product of Wang at his most experienced.
9. “Drive You Home”
“Drive You Home” is one of several non-album singles Wang has recorded in collaboration with other artists. Specifically, the featured artist for this song is Internet Money, who also started in the 2010s before becoming successful enough to establish a record label. On the whole, “Drive You Home” is a very sentimental song executed well enough for it to be worth listening to.
8. “Bullet to the Heart”
Wang released his debut solo album called Mirrors in 2019. “Bullet to the Heart” was the first of two singles from the release. It isn’t quite as important as one might expect because Wang is one of those artists who have released numerous non-album singles, meaning it is far from being the song that was supposed to launch his solo career. Still, it speaks volumes that “Bullet to the Heart” served as the spearhead for Mirrors. Luckily, the song was more or less able to do its job.
7. “Blue”
“Blue” is a love song of sorts. To be exact, it is a massive expression of confidence in the narrator’s significant other. Given the name, interested individuals should have no problem guessing that the song says he draws strength from the person he addresses when he feels down and depressed. However, “Blue” goes a step beyond that by describing scenarios that sound like natural disasters. Those lyrics would sound almost comedic and overblown under other circumstances. Despite that, they managed to work on this song.
6. “OKAY”
Chances are good interested individuals can guess Wang is multilingual. After all, he was in a South Korean boy band, so it makes sense that he would have Korean as a second language at the very least. Funny enough, Wang is trilingual or quadrilingual, depending on how one interprets things. He speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Korean. Cantonese and Mandarin are considered Chinese dialects but differ so much when spoken out loud that they are not mutually intelligible. In any case, “OKAY” is an excellent example of Wang’s ability to smoothly integrate multiple languages into a single song. Something much easier said than done.
5. “Pretty Please”
“Pretty Please” is another of Wang’s collaborations with other artists. In this case, he teamed up with Galantis, which was once an electronic music duo but is now the solo project of the Swedish DJ Bloodshy. The collaboration seems to have worked out well because “Pretty Please” received a decent response in several markets. For instance, it rose as high as the number 12 position on the Billboard US Dance chart in 2020.
4. “Oxygen”
“Oxygen” was the non-album single that preceded the release of Mirrors. Its lyrics aren’t the best, but its sound is catchy enough to make up for that lack. As such, “Oxygen” seems to have been popular with Chinese listeners because it managed to make it to the number 11 position on the short-lived Billboard China Top 100.
3. “Blow”
In 2022, Wang released a second solo album called Magic Man. As the story goes, he experienced burnout around 2020 and 2021, which gave him a crisis of confidence in himself. Luckily, he was able to get the support he needed by confiding in his friends, thus enabling him to pull himself back together before moving forward. Thanks to this, Magic Man is notable for being more experimental because it was meant to reflect the changed person he became. “Blow” was the choice for the album’s first single. Subsequently, it proved almost as mesmerizing as its subject, which isn’t bad considering the song’s focus.
2. “Dawn of Us”
“Dawn of Us” came from an earlier part of Wang’s career. At that point, he had just embarked on a solo career, as shown by how it was his third solo single. This isn’t a song that would win any prizes for originality. However, it remains surprisingly likable despite the years that have passed.
1. “100 Ways”
Meanwhile, “100 Ways” came out after the release of Mirrors. By this point, interested individuals should have no problem guessing it is a song about love. Specifically, “100 Ways” is about the intensity of love at a less-than-harmonious moment in a relationship. The song managed to make quite an impression on its target audience. It made it to the number 26 position on the Billboard Pop Airplay chart. Curiously, it also did well enough on the Official New Zealand Music Chart by climbing to the 39th spot.
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