’80s hit might be the most-played song at weddings, study of Spotify data suggests

(NEXSTAR) – Attending a wedding in the near future? Get ready to do plenty of dancing, often to some of the same songs you’ve heard at every other wedding you’ve been to.

“At Last” by Etta James? Sure, that’s a safe bet. A little “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars? It’s a definite possibility. And if you don’t think you’ll be hearing something sappy from Ed Sheeran, you’ve got another thing coming.

But the most popular song of all — as suggested by a new analysis from Breezit, an online resource for wedding vendors based in Southern California — is Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).”

Utilizing data obtained from Spotify, the analysts working with Breezit found that Houston’s 1987 hit was included in 24.2% of the top wedding-themed playlists (2,000 playlists in total) that were gathered for the study. Coming in second was ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” which was found on 19.7% of the playlists, followed by “Yeah!” by Usher (with Lil Jon and Ludacris) in third at 19.5%.

A look at the top 10, as determined by Breezit’s analysis, can be found below:

But while the songs above may be the most played at the average wedding, they aren’t necessarily among the top choices for first-dance songs. A survey conducted by The Knot in 2023 determined “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley was the most frequently chosen first-dance song among the 10,000 couples they polled, followed by Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” which held the top spot for the previous five years.

You might assume, too, that if couples often request many of the same songs for their wedding day, they might have similar opinions on which songs they definitely don’t want to hear — and you’d be right. The polling site 538 questioned dozens of wedding DJs in 2017 about the songs they were most often told to refrain from playing, and the results indicated that group dances — e.g, “The Chicken Dance,” “Cha-Cha Slide,” “Macarena” and “Cupid Shuffle” — were the most reviled by couples.

Despite this, one wedding DJ told 538 that some of these same songs were still quite common choices for wedding playlists — probably alongside “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” or whichever sappy Ed Sheeran ballad makes the cut.

“Many of these popular wedding [line dance] songs also populate the ‘must play’ list — because they are fun and work on dance floors!” Gregg Hollmann, a New Jersey wedding DJ, had told the outlet.

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