There is no consensus best song of 2026, but there is overlap. This list draws on Billboard’s 50 staff picks, published June 24; Rolling Stone’s, published June 16; and Complex’s 25-song ranking, published June 16. We kept the songs that showed up on at least two of them, with two flagged exceptions that earned a place anyway, and noted where a critic chose a different song from the same record. That is why Drake appears with the Complex pick while Billboard and Rolling Stone went for other cuts from Iceman. Everything below is the critics’ take, credited to them.
Drake, “Janice STFU”
Complex’s No. 1 song, a “gloomy, at times even angry” track with “one of the stickiest choruses in recent memory” that interpolates Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers.” All three lists took a different Iceman cut: Billboard chose “Shabang,” a looser, “casually triumphant” one, and Rolling Stone chose “Ran to Atlanta,” with Future and Molly Santana. Three lists, three Iceman songs.
IcemanDrakeListen on Apple Music
Olivia Rodrigo, “Drop Dead”
Rolling Stone and Billboard both pick the lead single from You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. RS hears a song about being so smitten you feel literally sick, with sugary ’80s synths, a Cure reference and a bathroom-line crush compared to “an angel on the walls of Versailles.” Billboard counts it as her fourth Hot 100 chart-topper. Complex goes with the album’s “stupid song.” The Robert Smith duet came first.
You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in LoveOlivia RodrigoListen on Apple Music
Don Toliver, “E85”
All three lists pick the OCTANE opener. Rolling Stone says the processed falsetto and synth crashes make a “sweeping statement” from the first seconds, and Billboard says it has stayed in the Hot 100’s top 40 since the album arrived in January. Complex notes it samples Malcolm Todd’s “Chest Pain (I Love).”
OCTANEDon ToliverListen on Apple Music
A$AP Rocky feat. Brent Faiyaz, “Stay Here 4 Life”
The ’Flacko and Faiyaz pairing makes sense to Complex and Billboard alike. Billboard says Rocky, partnered with Rihanna and now a father of three, is convinced his player days are behind him, rapping “Boys don’t cry, but, boy, that girl turn boys to men.” The song debuted at No. 23 on the Hot 100 in January, the highest entry from Don’t Be Dumb.
Don’t Be DumbA$AP RockyListen on Apple Music
Baby Keem feat. Kendrick Lamar and Momo Boyd, “Good Flirts”
Complex says Keem and Kendrick flipped the playbook for “maybe the most romantic song on the record,” with Keem almost mocking an ex and Kendrick coaxing a lover over. Billboard gives it one of the best verses of the year from his cousin and says it “would’ve run the 106 & Park countdown for multiple weeks back in the day.”
Ca$inoBaby KeemListen on Apple Music
T.I., “Let ’Em Know”
The Pharrell-produced first single from what T.I. has billed as his final album, Kill the King, makes both Complex and Rolling Stone. RS calls it his highest-charting Hot 100 hit in 12 years, “a reminder to anyone questioning his rank.” Complex says it matches the spirit of the classic DJ Toomp era.
LET ’EM KNOWT.I.Listen on Apple Music
Max B and French Montana, “Ever Since U Left Me (I Went Deaf)”
Built on a prominent flip of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s the Way (I Like It),” the reunion is a “contender for rap song of the year,” per Rolling Stone. Complex says it grew beyond a mixtape cut: the Remy Ma remix became the unofficial song of the Knicks’ championship run. Here is how the rest of that soundtrack sounded.
Ever Since U Left Me (I Went Deaf)French Montana & Max BListen on Apple Music
Taylor Swift, “I Knew It, I Knew You”
A Billboard-only pick that we kept for what it says about the year. Billboard calls her Toy Story 5 single her return to a smaller form of pop: “some sweet harmonica, a gently pulsing bass-and-drum groove,” and no “Eras-sized expansiveness.” It adds that for a soundtrack song to force a superstar “to get out of their own heads” is not the worst idea. Swift later played it at the premiere.
I Knew It, I Knew You (From Toy Story 5)Taylor SwiftListen on Apple Music
Lana Del Rey, “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter”
Both Billboard and Rolling Stone pick the single from the album that has not arrived yet. Billboard hears an unsettling tribute to her domestic bliss with husband Jeremy Dufrene, with eerie orchestral accompaniment and compressed, ghostly vocals. Rolling Stone notes the upcoming album Stove has had a long journey of title changes and a postponed date.
White Feather Hawk Tail Deer HunterLana Del ReyListen on Apple Music
Juvenile feat. Megan Thee Stallion, “B.B.B.”
Billboard says the Skolo-produced banger brought Juvenile back to the Hot 100 after two decades, and Rolling Stone writes that the spring hit is helped along by Megan’s verse. Billboard credits both with a breathless, hook-driven strip-club anthem for the 2020s that balances humor and sex.
Boiling PointJuvenileListen on Apple Music
Harry Styles, “Aperture”
Billboard calls the lead single from Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. an electro-pop smash with shades of LCD Soundsystem and a chorus that boils down to “We belong together.” Rolling Stone picked a different song from the album, “Season 2 Weight Loss,” which it calls “one of the smartest, most intriguing records Styles has made to date.”
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.Harry StylesListen on Apple Music
Bella Kay, “iloveitiloveitiloveit”
One of the rising entries, selected by Billboard and Rolling Stone alike. Billboard says its title promises more Black Eyed Peas than Black Tambourine, but the breakout hit stays closer to the bedroom, with real hooks and a pop star’s confidence. RS hears “flecks of country” and an opening line that cuts right to the chase.
iloveitiloveitiloveitBella KayListen on Apple Music
Fenix Flexin and Purps On The Beat, “RUBBERZ”
Complex’s pick alone, and the year’s weirdest rap swerve: a sunny, Smiths-inspired, ’80s-coded bop from a former Shoreline Mafia member. Some fans think it is AI, and Complex notes that Fenix and the song’s producer deny that. “We’ll take them at their word,” it writes, calling the track “a much-needed sprinkle of confetti” on a gray rap scene.
RUBBERZFenix Flexin & Purps On The BeatListen on Apple Music
Also on the lists
Billboard and Rolling Stone also both picked Bruno Mars’s “I Just Might” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis.” Billboard added Ella Langley’s “Be Her” and Kacey Musgraves’s “Dry Spell,” Rolling Stone added Fakemink’s “Blow the Speaker .,” and Complex’s ranking includes Yung Miami’s “Spend That” and BossMan Dlow’s “Motion Party.”
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
